Two Worlds
by Noatun
Summary: Taki Tachibana and Mitsuha Miyamizu's lives could hardly be more different: one, the sole heir of a powerful hive world manufacturing conglomerate, the other a preacher attached to a militia. After swapping bodies, they leave their marks on each others' lives, and discover things about themselves as well. Full fusion into 40k, knowledge of KnNw not needed. Completed.
1. Falling Star

**Chapter 1: Falling Star**

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On the second day of the week-long festival that celebrated the Emperor's ascension, a star fell over the hive world of Ceadounus. It burst from the warp in a tide of non-light and anti-colors, a vast graveyard of ships, wreathed in the corposant blood of the immaterium. It stormed through the orbits, shrouded by flame, a colossal comet of fire and death.

Gravitational fluctuations rippled out from the proximity of its emergence, tearing free kilometers-long fragments, sending the rusted remains of once-proud vessels spinning from the body of the hulk. They slashed across the skies in streaks of descending fire, disturbing even the decadent nobles whose palaces rose above the world's teeming cloud layers. They flared molten red, then pink, then white, as they hammered the victim world's continental expanse. Millions within the hive cities died without knowing what came for them, entombed as they were from any view of the sky, ignorant of the coming doom until the heat and crushing force claimed their lives. The main mass struck the parched plains between the world's towering hives, blazing through the smoggy overcast and crashing down with a booming thunder that shook the very bones of the world.

Space hulks were known to be the vectors for all manner of xenos and corrupt marauders, and the crude glyphs and jaw-plate attachments jutting from the behemoth's scrap-laden surface told any onlookers all they needed to know about the identity of its occupants. Though the greenskins were notorious for their brute resilience, the Planetary Defense Forces sent to investigate the primary crash site consoled themselves nonetheless with the idea that the crisis would soon be over. Surely, very little could have survived such a cataclysmic impact, just enough left to blood the frontline units a bit in a routine clean-up action against the remnants of a once-fearsome force.

Ceadounus had not tasted warfare in over a millennium, beyond the occasional minor rebellion and skirmish. No one living on the planet even knew anyone who had witnessed large-scale conflict on its surface. For the ruling high-borne class, who had made their wealth on the planet's considerable manufacturing capacity, such a notion was almost unthinkable.

How wrong they were.

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"In the Emperor's name, purge the alien!" Captain Ichiro cried from his position atop a Chimera, one of the few available to the company, his voice amplified by a loudspeaker over the low rumble of the vehicle's engine.

"Purge the alien!" His sergeants roared in unison.

"Purge the alien!" Thousands echoed around him, the battlecry rippling out until it erupted from every company and regiment present. Autogun magazines snapped into place with sharp reports, and those veteran platoons with access to lasguns slapped their power packs into their slots. Pike units marched to the fore, tough, muscular men, packing themselves into walls of bristling spearpoints to receive the greenskin charge.

For a moment, Ichiro felt himself rising on a wave of defiance, buoyed by a sea of unleashed humanity. Their collective power was electrifying, swelling in his senses to smother the stink of greenskin bodies coming from ahead, and the acrid smog belched from sooty engines and rickety smokestacks. He was eager for the fight. They would exterminate the greenskin survivors, claim the glory of victory, and in doing so quash the still raw memories of the space hulk's devastating impact from their minds.

The moment was shattered by the howl of the Orks. Countless tusked throats bellowed in reply, giving voice to the deepest instinct of the greenskin race. It was a wave of noise and a fist of force, anger and joy, eagerness and jubilation all rolled into one. It drowned out the human cry, a hideous sound that caused the stones on the ground to rattle. Even the vox was choked with baying static, a roar that came not from the ragged survivors of a catastrophic crash, but from the triumphant exhilaration of eager millions.

Ichiro's eyes went wide. His voice died in his throat. His hands trembled and his face paled. He had seen pict-recordings of the aliens before, read about them in battle logs, but neither had prepared him for the sudden shock of their exultation.

Explosions lit up the hulk, sending fragments spraying across the crater and making way for the invading horde to commence their onslaught. Their flashes cast Ichiro's face into shadow. He suddenly looked gaunt. Like a peeled skull.

His soldiers paused, the same jolt white terror flashing through their minds as well. They looked to their captain for direction.

Ichiro's training rose to the fore. He gesticulated with his sword, and waved forward with his laspistol. There was only one course of action, for to falter now would risk their collective nerve breaking before the green tide. And if that happened, it would not be long before they were all trampled into the dust.

"Advance! Attack! Attack!" He cried.

The Orks were faster. Tougher. Stronger and more ferocious. They were taller than most men and more than twice as wide at the shoulder; easy to hit, but hard to bring down. If the humans were eager then the Orks were downright ravenous, a sea of starving beasts with an insatiable hunger for violence.

Autoguns rattled, their muzzle flashes rippling up and down the Imperial line, their rounds leaving divots and pockmarks in the thick hides of the Orks. The Orks came on, heedless of pain. Their own bulky weapons barked, the multitude of reports merging into a single ear-splitting buzz that mowed down men in bloody swathes like wheat before the scythe.

The pike-lines wavered, and the Orks smashed through them. They barely even slowed, slashing their way through the phalanx with blades as big as human torsos, clamped in green fists as thick as men's skulls. A few unlucky ones were pinioned, only to be hacked apart by their comrades in their eagerness to get to grips with the foe.

Lasguns strobed, one managing to catch an Ork in the face with a six-shot burst. It left a mess of charred flesh and dribbling fluids, and another shot to the exposed braincase sent the alien toppling bonelessly into the greenskins behind. They advanced regardless, shoving the body aside and trampling it beneath their heavy boots.

What heavy weaponry the company had available to them poured fire into the Orks, but autocannon rounds that would have gone through ten men were stopped by just one or two green bodies. The Orks replied with their own heavy fire, unleashing wavering beams of energy and crackling green lightning from coiled barrels and tottering, multi-pronged ends. These struck the greenskins' own lines as often as they did the humans, turning flesh to clouds of glowing cinders. Several weapons exploded before they could fire, while others melted to slag as their power relays were run into insanely high temperatures by their trigger-happy owners. It didn't matter.

Artillery struck the horde, sending broken body parts sailing through the air in bloody red arcs. The gaps in the greenskin lines were filled within moments. Corkscrewing rockets and dense balls of scrap whizzed through the air, crashing into the Imperials and smearing soldiers' bodies across the ashen plains. Orkish aircraft flung themselves from openings in the hulk, most only managing to nosedive into the ground. Those few that remained aloft wheeled about to strafe the Imperial lines, filling the air with the juddering staccato of their heavy guns.

Ichiro looked around the edges of the engagement zone. The crude but heavily armed vehicles of the Orks had already driven off or destroyed the PDF's own meager armored support. The Imperial armored platoons had sold their lives dearly, claiming a toll of greenskin armor at least as high as their own losses, their wreckage spawning spiraling columns of greasy black smoke. But the Orks had so many that even twice the number of kills would scarcely have made a difference. Kicking up clouds of dust and smoke, their bikes and battlewagons raced around to encircle Ichiro's infantry company, closing the noose with a bellowing, clanging, booming wall of rattletrap metal.

The Ceadounians were disciplined and brave, and determined to protect their home. But the Orks could endure more, had more bodies, and more guns to spare. Always more.

The Orks were close enough to Ichiro now that he could make out their individual scars and tattooed symbols. Beady red eyes glared back, glowing in the dim light like lumps of hot coal. The Chimera's pintle-mounted stubber had long since run out of ammunition, so Ichiro shot one on the head with his laspistol. Its thick, sloped forehead endured the biting light, the sizzling wound only seeming to spur the Ork on in its alien rage. A mob of them scrambled to reach him, grappling with his vehicle as the driver tried desperately to reverse. Green hands found their way onto tracks and external attachments, tearing apart links and wrenching off lights and sensors in their careless brutality. The Chimera rocked on its suspension, its exposed wheels skidding across the dirt. Nothing drove in the sheer physicality of the Orks more than watching them, feeling them manhandle a forty ton vehicle.

Something struck Ichiro hard from behind, sending him sprawling across the top of his vehicle. His skull was numb. His arms flopped nervelessly at his sides. His mouth filled with blood. His vision blurred. He was dying, and his company was dying around him. Already some of the Orks were losing interest, groups of them roaming off into the distance, spreading across the plains like some malignant disease.

And then the darkness took him.

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Taki Tachibana sat, gazing idly between the gilded grilles of his window at the sea of white before him. An ocean of clouds stretched in every direction, fading into a blurred horizon in the distance with the blue sky above. No ground was visible from atop the highest spires of Ceadounus Primaris, the largest hive on Ceadounus, whose summits were home to most of the planet's high nobility and its planetary governor.

Some might have called it heavenly, or risked life and limb for a chance to live in such a place. Taki Tachibana had never known any other sort of existence.

Nearly three years ago, on the second day of the week-long festival that celebrated the Emperor's ascension - which in Ceadounic traditions represented the Emperor's titanic battle against the Arch-Traitor himself - a star fell from the heavens. Since then, rumors were that contact had been lost with the world's Secundi and Tertius-class hives, and that their current status was unknown. Somewhat more worrying was the occasional information filtering up about ongoing battles against the invading xenos, which raged around lower levels of Ceadounus Primaris.

Taki allowed the rumors to drift from his mind. The Tachibana Manufacturing Conglomerate was the wealthiest and most powerful business entity on Ceadounus and a dozen other planets, with the ear of the governor and nearly as much power to boot. As the family's sole scion, Taki had always had his every need and most of his wants provided for and tended to. Perhaps there was a grain of truth among all of the hearsay, but nothing in his life had really changed since the war had allegedly begun, even despite the semi-regular complaints from his father about the Munitorum wanting to draft the servants or distribute their food stores or some such like that.

Taki did not even glance back as a servant came up behind him, and took a moment to tidy up his silkweave collar and give a few brushes to straighten out his spiky brown hair. His thoughts were consumed by the matter of his recent dreams. Though the details always faded not long after he woke up, the general thread of them was the same. It was like he was living somebody else's life during them, a life very different from his own. And those dreams were way too realistic.

A more religious individual might have interpreted signs and portents from this, but there was no real place for such intense devotion in Taki's life. Though the Emperor's beacon enabled navigation between the stars, and supposedly the faithful would be able to join him after death, it was not like any of that was relevant to a person's everyday life. Though Taki took himself through the motions of prayer - as all nobility did in order to maintain at least an outward an appearance of faithfulness - he had never been able to make himself believe that the Emperor was actually there, listening to every word of it.

"Taki. There you are." His father said from behind. The servant took his cue to leave, shutting the door behind him.

"Are you feeling better today?" He turned.

"Eh? What'dyou mean?" Taki turned, quirking up an eyebrow and looking into his father's bespectacled eyes.

"Well, you woke up yesterday at the crack of dawn, about four hours earlier than usual." He counts off on his fingers. "You refused to let the staff take care of you, then got yourself lost around the house. We found you half passed out from the air pressure at this height after you got trapped in the aircraft hangar."

"Quit joking with me dad." Taki leaned forward. "You know there's no way I'm going to fall for that one again."

"You spoke strangely too. But that also seems to have gone back to normal." His father shrugged. He quickly silenced himself at the sound of a knock on the door, and waited until the procession of servants had finished assembling the evening meal that they had prepared for Taki, drawn from the crops and livestock raised within the family's private greenhouses. Some noble families insisted on utmost propriety even during private meals, but Lord Taiga Tachibana didn't care to make an issue of it as long as the proper observances were held in the presence of outsiders.

"Now I know this is probably because you're stressed about the impending marriage to Miss Okudera." He said, pulling up a seat so that he could speak to his son at eye level. "But I hope you can understand why this is necessary for us."

"But she's so fake." Taki replied, carving off a slice of braised oephlia heart and popping it into his mouth. "It's like she's wearing a mask, just reflecting back the words she's been told to say."

"Perhaps, but the both of you should eventually be able to see that this union of our companies will ultimately be of benefit to both of our families."

"Yeah, and that's probably the same reason why mom left." Taki replied in a tiny voice. He channeled a bit of his irritation into a vicious bite of his canoele-melon, only to be further annoyed when he realized he had bitten his way through the rind.

"Say, you know those men from the Munitorum came again today." His father changed the subject. "First the stockhouses, then the servants, now they're asking for our stores of heavy metals. They've been pushing especially hard on the matter of palladium for shell detonators. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to hold out."

"Why don't you just let them have it?" Taki shrugged. "It would take a lot of trouble off of your hands wouldn't it?"

Taiga sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "It isn't that simple. Our family has a certain… status on this world and many others. We can't just yield that easily and let them trample over all of the rights we enjoy as noble families. And besides, if we are the first to give in, that would make us look bad in front of our rivals."

"Oh yeah, speaking about that." Taki said. He took a final bite from his eggs argoelotte, then leaned over, reaching into a nearby drawer and pulling out a data-slate. It was quite remarkable what indiscretions some nobles were willing to talk about in front of, or how many allowances they were willing to give to someone whom they thought was just the vapid and useless son of a wealthy business magnate.

"Hmm, this will be useful. Especially what you've got about Lord Tanaka." Taiga nodded, taking the data-slate from Taki's hands and flipping through some of its contents. Though Taki was aware of what his father did with this stuff, both directly and playing their various rivals off each other with false flags, he himself had yet to get his hands dirty.

"Alright, see ya." His father stood up, making his way to the door. The sun was beginning to set, its fading light reflecting off the clouds and painting them with an orange haze.

"And make sure you review what to say at the meeting tomorrow." He closed the door behind him.

Taki sighed and went to his closet, where he opened his locked box and gazed at the golden amulet that he kept within until the tension melted away. Then he slipped into his private bath, dipping down for a long soak in the warm water and scented soaps. When the warmth at last made him sleepy, he pulled himself from the water, and dried himself off with the towels that had been silently laid out for him while he was bathing.

When he returned to his bedroom, Taki saw that his leftover food had been cleaned up by the household staff, though the drawer that he had opened was still left ajar. When he went over to close it, he noticed the corner of a piece of paper sticking out from within. He pulled it out, and stared for a moment at the words written across it.

"Who are you?" The paper asked in elegantly composed High Gothic, like the sort of writing one would expect to see on a piece of religious scripture. Taki noticed then that there was also something written on the back, and he flipped the paper over to look.

"I am Mitsuha," it said, in the exact same style.

Some vague memory stirred within Taki at the sight of that name, a strange sense of familiarity that tugged at the edges of his consciousness. There was a dreamlike quality to it, some half-remembered significance that was capable of being conveyed, but hovered just out of reach every time he tried to grasp for it.

Taki yawned. The bath had already made him sleepy, and all of that hard thought invested into the contents of the note wasn't helping matters. He fell onto his bed - roughly five times as wide as someone like him needed - slid under the covers, and allowed the blackness of sleep to take him.

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 **Author's Notes:** This story is already written up to its fourth chapter, and the entire plot has already been planned out, so hopefully updates will come pretty regularly. Enjoy.


	2. Reasons

**Chapter 2: Reasons**

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Peace was a difficult thing to find in a military installation for reasons that were abundantly obvious, which made the few motes of it that were available all the more precious. It was just at the crack of dawn, one of those rare moments, and Mitsuha Miyamizu had awoken as she always did this early. Or at least, that was what her chrono told her.

Mitsuha rose to a sitting position from her bedroll on the floor of her cozy room. Down in the lower hive, there was no sun and thus no sunrise, no weather nor any impression of the passage of seasons. Thus, one could only rely on artificial means to measure the passage of hours and days, and no one had anything more than a vague idea of what standard year it was. Growing up in the lower layers of Kaedun's Hive Primaris, Mitsuha's perception of the 'sky' was dominated by an all-encompassing canopy of towering edifices, shaped from thousands of meters of calcicrete and ceramite and layered atop one another to make up her home. And even if she were to venture outside, Kaedun's skies were a morass of pollution, spewed from the countless manufactorums that were built into the hives. Everything above was smothered by a blanket of gray, tinged with a bit of sulfurous yellow and rusted-iron red. Even at the best of times the sun was a pale disc, its light diffused by the cloud layers into an dim, even twilight.

Some might have called it hell, or been willing to do anything to escape from it. Mitsuha Miyamizu had never known any other sort of existence.

She had seen sunrises in her dreams though, seen the fingers of soft, warm light trawling over a sea of white clouds. And what vivid dreams they were, even if they tended to fade afterwards into murky memory. She'd seen real plants too, whole interior gardens of them; newly grown buds sprouting alongside molten orange and ochre leaves, and flowers blooming in vivacious splendor all in one place. Though her recollection always became blurry after she awoke, the feeling of wonder remained. It was something that could never be found anywhere within the lower hive.

Mitsuha briefly wondered where she'd gotten her ideas about what these things looked like. As far as she knew, one needed to have some preconceptions in order to dream about stuff right? Unless they were visions, but that didn't seem right either.

Back in her childhood, Mitsuha had seen some picture books that might have depicted such things, but those images seemed way too indistinct to be the source of such realistic-seeming fantasies. She'd also seen a holo of a sunset once. It was a cherished memory, one that she could still recall quite clearly. That was similar to a sunrise, but in reverse right?

The militia base was stirring to life, the morning quiet giving way to the clamor of men and machines. Mitsuha stood up, donning her Ecclesiastical robes and mantle, making sure the purity seals were securely fastened to her collar. She hooked her laspistol and sabre to her belt, hanging them right alongside her gold-plated, leather-bound copy of the Imperial Creed. Then, leaning her small, handheld mirror against a wall to line up her reflection, Mitsuha plaited her shoulder-length hair, and pinned it up so that its end tapered off into a small ponytail. She tied it into place with a length of sash, where it would remain out of her way as she went about the day's duties.

Lastly, she removed her Rosarius from its special box, and threaded the braided red cord that she customarily used for it through the loop of metal that extended out between its twin eagle heads. She hung it around her neck, taking a moment to roll the device around in her hands. The dim lighting in her room gleamed off its gilded vertices. Its adamantium construction made it heavy for its size, even for something that was already made of metal.

The Rosarius had been given to her not long ago upon her ascension to the rank of Preacher, and attachment to the Kaedun Primaris Militia. It was immeasurably more valuable than all of her other possessions combined. Even for an organization as wealthy and powerful as the Adeptus Ministorum, it was a significant outlay to have these devices commissioned for the protection of their clergy.

If one asked a Mechanicus Tech-Priest to explain the device's function, the answer would come out as a dry, technical lecture about the details and physics of conversion field technology. Most of the soldiers and Mitsuha herself however, referred to it as the Soul's Armor, a shield of light that would safeguard the soul from passing before its time. Mitsuha herself firmly believed that the pure white light given off when the device repelled an impact had a spark of the Emperor's divinity within it.

Mitsuha paused, noticing something scribbled onto her forearm. An attempt had been made to write something in High Gothic, before the writer had given up and resorted to barely legible Low Gothic.

"Who are you? What are you?" It said.

Mitsuha frowned, partially at the sensation of a tingling memory, and partially just out of annoyance at the chosen method of communication. After copying the writing into her journal booklet, she collected some water from a wall-mounted faucet in her room and scrubbed the letters off. Kneeling in front of her room's personal shrine, she spoke a short prayer to the Emperor, then headed off to the unit's mess hall.

Mitsuha's entrance into the company's mess hall resulted in a panel of faces turning to stare at her. Her unit was stationed just behind the Paderu Wall of the Primaris Hive, within Zona 4 Militum, section 3. Within the cramped depths of the hive, there was just no room for the mess hall to be able to seat even a fraction of those it served.

Mitsuha turned to confront one group about their odd behavior, causing them to quickly avert their eyes and reply with mumbled apologies of "sorry your grace" and similar. Nonetheless, the weight of the combined stares was like a physical pressure, and she couldn't possibly question them all.

Mitsuha took her place in the food queue. As per usual, the preserved meat and biscuits were in short supply. Though Mitsuha's position afforded her greater rations than a rank-and-file trooper, it just didn't sit right with her for a member of the military priesthood to set herself apart from those that she served. Instead she filled up the remainder of her plate with synth-paste and meal-brick, both nutritious to be sure, but which tasted like wet cardboard and had the consistency to match.

"Hey, someone sure is the center of attention today."

Mitsuha looked up to see the face of her good friend in the unit, Gunnery Sergeant Katsuhiko Teshigawara. Standing over a head taller than Mitsuha with his hair buzzed short, he cut an imposing figure in the dim light.

"What're you looking at?" The gunnery sergeant rounded on the nearest bunch of soldiers who were still glancing at Mitsuha. "If you time to stare like a bunch of slack-jawed morons, then you have time to drop and give me twenty. Now drop and give me twenty!"

They stared dumbly at him for a moment.

"Move it! Or I'll have you on latrine duty for the rest of the week!"

That got them going, and the rest of the looks quickly faded. Mitsuha herself was still a new transfer, having been with the unit for not even an entire season. The gunnery sergeant on the other hand was an old-timer in the company, and known by the troopers for being an unforgiving taskmaster whose bad side was one that everyone dearly wished to avoid.

Mitsuha's hand moved automatically to her copy of the Imperial Creed, which hung from her belt on a thick, golden chain. Most inhabitants of the lower hive already maintained a steady and simple faith in the Emperor, and the unit hadn't seen any action in decades. While Mitsuha could answer questions and lead the soldiers in prayer, all of the inspirational words she had memorized during training now seemed to be for nought, and she wasn't sure what she was bringing that wasn't already there. It was difficult to keep sight of what they were fighting for when they never actually fought against anything.

"You do know why they're looking though, right?" Another voice said from behind the gunnery sergeant, peeking out to reveal a familiar pair of braided twintails.

"Good morning Gunnery Sergeant, Ordinate." Mitsuha said as the three of them walked together and found a place to eat. "And, no... I do not?"

"Hey, no need to be so formal." The other woman replied. "Just call me Sayaka, and you should call this guy here 'Tessie'."

"Don't ever call me that in front of other people." Tessie snapped at her.

"Well gosh, aren't you rude this morning."

"Glad to see you two are getting along well." Mitsuha smiled and stifled a laugh, to which the reply from the two of them was a reflexive denial spoken together.

"But Mitsuha, you really were acting strangely yesterday. You came out without your robes after breakfast had already closed up, and your hair was terrible." Sayaka said. "And you forgot what your name was, and where, well, anything was really."

"Huh?" Mitsuha's mind filled briefly with an image of herself, walking around base in her sleeping clothes with her hair all tangled up. It wasn't a good look. She shook her head to get the image out of her mind.

"That's right, do either of you know who it was that wrote on my arm?" Mitsuha rolled up a sleeve and pointed to her bare forearm. Some traces of leftover ink were still visible.

Tessie and Sayaka glanced at each other, and shrugged in unison.

"That looks kind of like the pen you use to write in your journal doesn't it?" Sayaka pointed at the rubbed out traces of ink. "You sure you don't remember anything?"

Mitsuha shook her head. "Yeah, nothing. Never mind."

"Yeah, it's as if you contracted amnesia or something. But I guess if that's what it is, then I shouldn't expect you to remember anything about it now." Sayaka shrugged.

"Well, I do feel as if I've been having strange dreams lately. I was planning to make time to pray and find guidance for them later." Mitsuha said.

"You choked on your food, didn't know how to hold your sword, and couldn't shoot either for that matter." Tessie added. He scooped up the last spoonful of nutrient paste and swallowed it down.

"Speaking of which, we ought to be going to target training soon."

The targets in this morning's target training consisted of a line of ceramite blocks, marked with target circles sometimes accompanied by crude drawings of alien faces, depicting a variety of species both known and imagined. In the cramped corridors of the lower hive, what was once probably a thoroughfare had been repurposed into a target range, as the only space with enough distance to make a good go of it. Sayaka separated from them here; as a Munitorum Ordinate, she needed to be able to hold a gun and defend herself if need be, but she had her own tasks and her training requirements were looser compared to those of the regular soldiers.

Mitsuha stood at five hundred meters and snapped off a shot from her laspistol. Light flashed from her target, and a blackened scorch mark appeared over the eye of one block with a painted-on Ork, leaving the underlying material slightly cracked from the explosion of hot vapor. Another shot claimed the second eye, and a third struck the same spot, causing bits of ceramite to glow and flake off like embers.

"One of the best shots we've got in the company outside of a scope." Tessie nodded. "Couldn't hit the broad side of a Baneblade yesterday though."

"Reminds me of those high-rider brats that keep passing through here on the way to the Underhive." He added with a grimace. "Think just because they bought some fancy gadgets with their money that death is a game."

Mitsuha squeezed the trigger again, but nothing came out. She slid the weapon's power pack from its place. The battery still had power, but the relay was worn out.

"Yeah, I've had this one for a while, so I guess it's about that time." She said, running a finger over the battery's conductor.

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"What?! Another one broke down?" Sayaka took the worn out battery, rolling it between her hands. "But I'm already really short on these things."

"Give me a break, what aren't you short on?" Tessie replied, leaning over her counter on one arm. "We haven't had enough grenades for grenade practice in months, we don't have enough heavies for suppressive fire drills, and now it's batteries?"

He gestured with a hand at the structure around them. "This hive is filled with factories churning stuff out by the shipload isn't it? Why is it that none of it ever gets over here?"

"Hey, don't get on my case about this." Sayaka replied, handing Mitsuha a new power pack. "You know how it is. The nobles in the spires control the factories, and sell it all off to keep the money for themselves. So there's nothing left for us and what isn't in short supply is just falling apart."

That the company was perpetually short-supplied was undoubtedly true, and the company's motor pool was breaking down as well, many of the vehicles being the subject of jokes among the soldiers for their unreliability due to lack of spare parts.

"You're telling me. Look at this." Tessie gestured at an aging Sentinel, with a broken powerplant that hadn't been replaced in months. "What's she supposed to run on, pedal power?"

"Oh don't remind me." Mitsuha pressed a hand to her forehead. "Just the other week we drove one of the Chimeras up a slope, and then the suspension system broke. We ended up having to get out and push."

"You want to take this old crate out? " Sayaka turned away from Tessie to deal with a crew of tankers, who had come requesting to take one of the Leman Russes for a spin. "Well you can try, but I warn you, with the transmission the way it is it'll take a bit of legwork to get her going. So, before we sign off on it, how many aurochs do you have available to pull her with?"

They didn't have any.

The talk about practice and drilling reminded Mitsuha of a question that was on her mind, a question that she'd been meaning to ask for some time.

"Say Tess- I mean Gunnery Sergeant Katsuhiko, how are we doing on inter-regiment performance rankings?" She asked.

"Well, some of the units in the Secundi-class hives get supplied more, so they can actually get enough practice." Tessie grimaced, as if the very notion of it were a sting against his regimental pride. "So when the next Guard tithe comes in after the Feast, it'll be them who get picked if anything."

"You were wanting to go into the Guard, right Mitsuha? Get out of this place, visit other worlds." Sayaka stepped in once the tankers had left. "See the sky, feel the wind and all that?"

She shrugged. "I don't blame you. All these gloomy corridors and this endlessly recycled air really wears on you after a while."

"No, it's not that. I just want to serve the Throne as best I can." Mitsuha replied. She frowned. Despite her outward denial, deep down she could feel the sting of truth carried by her friend's words, even if Sayaka intended no offense.

"In any case, I should go pay a visit to the Pontifex Cordatus." Mitsuha said. She slipped the replacement laspistol battery into its slot. "Thank you for the battery."

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...

* * *

The Cardinal's conference room was positively opulent compared to Mitsuha's own sparse quarters, every wall lined with gilded idols and representations of the Emperor. Mitsuha also knew for a fact that Pontifex Cordatus himself maintained a manse within a spire of the hive, even though Zona 4 - which contained the majority of the parishes that his authority extended over - was located in the lower levels. It was rare these days for him to even pay a visit to the lower hive, so caught up was he in mingling with the spire nobility.

It was another one of those little vagaries of life.

"There you are! What was the matter with you yesterday?! Explain yourself!" The Pontifex shot up from his seat, banging a wrinkled fist against the surface of his desk, causing his jowls to quiver from the impact.

"You went out without your robes! You couldn't lead any of the prayers! You ignored me when I called out your name! I want some answers, Throne-dammit!"

Mitsuha remained as still as a statue. Nothing good would come from interrupting the Pontifex before his tirade had ended. Trying to soothe or argue with the man while he was still going off was just asking for trouble.

It was when Cordatus finally sank slowly back into his seat, that Mitsuha spoke up.

"My deepest apologies for my behavior, your grace. I have no satisfactory explanation for it, and will accept penance. I will lead the day's prayers for the unit, and give my assurances that it will not happen again."

Despite his outwardly fiery personality, Pontifex Cordatus was still a very old man, and the intensity of his outbursts quickly exhausted him. Mitsuha wasn't sure exactly how old he was, though he seemed to consume more rejuvenat treatments than actual food. Mitsuha pictured in her mind a counter displaying the average age of the room, ticking down by at least a hundred and fifty standard years whenever she entered.

Thus mollified, the Pontifex dismissed Mitsuha with a listless wave of his hand.

"See that it doesn't." He mumbled, the volume of his voice dropping to barely more than a breathless whisper. "It's less than two months until the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, and by the Throneworld we will honor Him as is His due."

Mitsuha bowed one last time and turned to leave. She'd gotten off relatively lightly if what everyone had been saying was true, and she still had quite a lot of duties to attend to, including leading the unit in prayer. Nonetheless, she was going to have to some time that evening to go pray at her favorite chapel, which was high enough within the hive's structure to be at the level of the planet's cloud layers. It was a long journey up so Mitsuha couldn't go every day, but the abbess who tended to it was nice, and might be able to find some answers in her extensive knowledge of obscure theological matters.

Yes, she would definitely make time to pay a visit, and have these events interpreted.

* * *

...

* * *

The shrine that Mitsuha favored was neither particularly public, nor especially ostentatious, despite being located at an altitude within the hive where the inhabitants could have been considered to be of the upper class. It was little more than a plain gray cell, with a statue of the Emperor gazing out from one wall, and was most commonly used by the servants and household staff of the lower nobility for their daily prayers.

As Mitsuha closed her eyes and knelt down to pray, she heard a series of slow footsteps approaching her from behind. She finished her prayer before turning around and bowing to the abbess of the chapel.

"Thank you for coming to see me." Mitsuha said, kneeling back down to lower herself to eye level with the other woman. Though the abbess was shortened and bent with age, and her hair was a mop of grey tied back into a short ponytail, her eyes still glimmered with wisdom and sharp awareness.

She was also close to retirement, upon which time someone else would probably take over administration of the shrine. Mitsuha couldn't hold back a quiet sigh at the thought of it.

"It's my pleasure. You have questions for me, my child?" The abbess said. "Answering them is about all I can do these days, so please, feel free to ask."

Mitsuha paused for a moment to compose her thoughts. "Well, lately I've been having very detailed dreams. I dream about sunrises and gardens, and things I've never seen before and couldn't possibly know about. And also, the others in my company tell me I've been acting strangely lately, but I don't have any memories of this. Might they be related?"

Mitsuha frowned. Despite her attempts to organize them, her thoughts had just come out as a barely coherent stream of words anyway.

"Well, I can't speak as to the part about you acting strangely." The abbess nodded. "But it is said that at least some part of every prayer to the Emperor is heard, even if it comes from the very edges of the galaxy. Perhaps these are visions being sent from Him to you, showing you a glimpse of your future away from this world."

"Make no mistake though, the Emperor prefers to help those who are willing to help themselves." She cautioned. "I know you've wanted to join the Guard, to travel and see other planets. If that's the case, then it must be you who leads and inspires your unit to make it into the next tithe. Then He will also see to it that you get what you desire."

That answer merely kindled another burning question within Mitsuha, the question of whether it was wrong of her to allow her desire to escape the hive's confines to mix with her desire to serve the Emperor well. Instead she swallowed the inquiry, thanked the abbess for her help, and descended back down to rejoin her militia company.

After finishing up a simple meal with the rest of the soldiers and leading them through the evening observances and blessings, Mitsuha returned to her room. Disrobing, she bathed herself using some water collected in a bucket, then scooped up her journal and slipped into her bedroll. She wrote about the day's events, in part out of a hope that the act of writing would allow her to draw some conclusions about what the abbess had told her. Nothing was forthcoming so she put the booklet away, closed her eyes, and allowed her consciousness to drift off into sleep. Maybe something would come to her in her dreams.


	3. Exchange

**Chapter 3: Exchange**

 _\- "Look, I don't have any time for this, could you just show her out of here."_

* * *

 _..._

* * *

Taki awoke to a pounding on his door. He rose slowly to a sitting position and opened his eyes a crack, his vision slowly resolving into focus. His room was looking darker than usual, and his bed was a lot harder than he was accustomed to. He threw out an arm, and briefly cried out when it struck something hard, then quickly silenced himself at what he heard.

That wasn't his voice. It was a woman's voice that had come from his mouth.

Taki's mind swam into clarity. He turned his head. He was in a tiny, nearly featureless room, smaller than most of the closets he had back in his manse. He wasn't sleeping on a bed, but rather was tucked into a bedroll in one corner. His long, dark hair tumbled down over his pale shoulders.

He looked down. He was in a young woman's body, one that was quite a bit more athletic than his own.

He was in the dream again. And it was way too realistic.

"Hey! Mitsuha! What's happening in there?" A man's voice spoke from outside, accompanied by another bout of loud knocking. "Get up or you're going to miss breakfast!"

Taki's memories were kind of hazy, but he could recall enough. If this time was going to be anything like last time, then his day was set to be a long one.

"I know, I'm coming." He sighed, pulling himself out from his bedroll and putting on a loose tunic that he found folded up in the lone dresser. He was just going to have to get through it.

Taki looked up to see a robe hanging from a wall, light brown cloth accentuated with some red and gold trimming. A flash of memory came to him. That's right. This woman whose body he was inhabiting was supposed wear that.

Taki unhooked the robe from where it was hanging and pulled it over his head, only to find himself unable to locate where the sleeves and head were supposed to go out. He stumbled blindly for a bit, letting out a curse as he hit his knee against a wall. It hurt, but he still didn't wake up.

At last Taki pulled the robe down, and flipped its hood back over his head. Nothing was ever easy around here, was it?

Taki noticed a glimmer in the corner of his eye coming from a small handheld mirror that had been placed diagonally against a wall atop a small dresser. He stared at his reflection for a moment, confirming his new appearance. A red sash lay curled next to it. His hair was getting in his eyes so he took the sash and tied it back into a ponytail.

Taki opened the door, and found himself face to face with two other soldiers. They looked him up and down as he remembered who they were.

"You forgot your sword. And your gun." The taller soldier said, leaning against the doorframe and gesturing at Taki's empty belt, the triple chevrons of his gunnery sergeant insignia visible on his shoulder.

"And don't forget to bring your Imperial Creed! That's way more important!" The other one added, peeking out from behind her friend's back.

Taki sighed. Yeah, this was going to be a long day.

* * *

...

* * *

Mitsuha awoke. Through half-lidded eyes, she noticed that her room was a lot brighter than usual. Her bedroll was also softer than normal, but maybe that was just her sleepiness talking. Yesterday had been a long day after all.

She rolled over to face the wall, trying to shut out the light. There was no wall. There was only more bed.

Not bedroll. Bed.

Mitsuha sat up and cleared her eyes. She looked at the white marble floor, the velvet drapes around her four-poster bed, and the golden light spilling into the room from its expansive windows. Above, the sky was blue and cloudless. Below, a sea of billowing white.

She was in the dream. And what a sight it was.

Mitsuha scooted to the edge of her bed, swung her legs over the side, then stood and stretched her form. There was a full-length mirror attached to one wall, and she took a moment to look herself over. She was in the noble boy's body again.

Oh well. That came with the territory, and as long as she was dreaming, there was nothing to do but to enjoy it. She pulled a chair up to a window, rested her arms on the top rail of the chair's back end, and watched the ongoing sunrise. She found herself briefly wishing she could open a window for a breath of clean, clear air, but some half-formed recollection quickly quashed the thought.

Mitsuha didn't bother to track long she had sat there, basking in the sun's soft, warm rays. She was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Um… come in?" She said.

The door swung open, and a trio of servants entered, dressed in identical black and white livery. Between them, they wheeled a portable table before Mitsuha and set the pins down the legs to keep it from moving.

"Lightly grilled plelid fillet." The most petite of the servants said. "Aurot shell soup. Sliced and peeled donlom fruit. Please enjoy, young master."

The three of them worked quickly, laying down three dishes on the table and arranging their contents with herbs and dipping sauces into intricate patterns that pleased the eye. Then, before Mitsuha could object, they bowed in unison and retreated, keeping out of sight but close enough to hear and answer any requests.

"Wait, this isn't really necessary. I could… make my own?" Mitsuha said, receiving a puzzled look from the lead servant. Reluctantly, she lifted a spoonful of the soup to her mouth and swallowed. It seemed to be made from more ingredients than she had sampled in her entire life, an exquisite profusion of original tastes. Still, her unease at being pampered in such a manner dulled the impact of the flavor.

"Young master, Lord Tachibana wishes to inform you that you are expected at the meeting with the Okudera house in four hours." The lead servant spoke up. "We will dispatch a staff member to assist you in getting dressed."

"Meeting? I have to meet someone?" Mitsuha said, pointing toward herself with an index finger and drawing another strange look.

"Well, I don't think help will be needed. I can dress myself." She said at last, receiving a bow in return.

"Probably." She added, in a voice too quiet for the servants to hear, lifting up a finger to play with her spiky brown hair. That still left some time to enjoy the view.

* * *

...

* * *

"Gagh!" Taki sputtered as he bit down on a crumbling mouthful of dark red meal-brick. Its flavor was roughly what he'd imagined dried sand tasted like, if it were mixed with enough salt to wilt a glasswort. He pinched his throat as he spat his mouthful back out onto his plate, then quickly diluted the remaining flavor with a spoonful of nutrient-paste. A gulp of water washed it down at last, though the water itself carried a hint of a bitter metallic tang that lingered long after it was gone.

"Get back! And keep your eyes to yourself!" The gunnery sergeant was making a valiant effort to ward off the looks of curious soldiers. It wasn't working, and Taki's odd behavior was still attracting a lot of unhidden stares.

Taki grit his teeth. Something stirred within him. He wasn't going to let all these people mock him over this.

"Here, Mitsuha, why don't you take some of mine today if you're not feeling well." Ordinator Sayaka said, interrupting Taki's thoughts. Turning, she pushed a pair of biscuits and some meat from her plate onto Taki's, glancing around nervously all the while at the surrounding soldiers.

Taki's rational mind reasserted itself, and he pushed the feeling down. If he started something, then these two people who had been so helpful to him would get caught up in it. Down here, nobody else's food was any better after all, and he was the only one being difficult about it.

"Yeah, uh, thanks." Taki said, taking the offered food and shifting in his seat.

They finished the remainder of their meal with little further fuss. Gunnery Sergeant Tessie noted that target training was coming up, and that they were already late.

"Hey, what do you think you-" Another soldier started, though he quickly silenced himself when he noticed who he was addressing. A scorch mark smoldered on the edge of his target block, four blocks over to the left from the one Taki was supposed to be aiming at.

"To think I'd see the day when I'd have to teach you how to shoot." Tessie said, the corners of his mouth curling up into a hint of a smirk.

"Why? Am I doing something wrong?" Taki said. He rolled the laspistol around in his hands, scanning it for some imagined defect that he could blame for his poor shooting.

Tessie approached and reached out with his hands, pausing briefly as he mentally overcame a rush of embarrassment at the proximity. Then, taking Taki's arm, he raised it from his hip and lined it up at shoulder level. Taki's next shot grazed his target block, leaving a black streak scorched across its left side.

Taki supposed that all of the holos he'd watched were probably not the most accurate depictions of how gun-fighting worked.

"Heh, well I guess that's something." Tessie said, looking on with satisfaction.

"You were shooting spot on at five hundred meters yesterday though, don't know how you're having it so hard at just one." He chuckled.

Taki's reply was cut off by a shower of sparks from his side, falling short of reaching him but cascading over the trooper whose target he had hit earlier. He couldn't hold back a yelp as the man was sent to the ground, the left side of his face and uniform marred with burns.

Tessie moved. The gunnery sergeant was at the other man's side in a moment, dragging him out of the way while Taki was still frozen with shock.

"Can you get to the medics by yourself?" He asked, helping the other soldier to his feet.

"Y-yes, thank you sir." The other man said before limping away.

"Right, this area is closed down." Tessie declared. "Everyone out."

While the remaining soldiers left, Taki ventured cautiously forward to examine the source of the sparks. A chunk from a nearby wall had collapsed, taking with it the insulation for a length of power cabling embedded within. The exposed wiring had come into contact, and the resultant exchange of current had reduced the entire section to a blackened and fused mass.

So many dangers, Taki thought. So many dangers just from nothing more than neglect. This was what this woman had to deal with every day.

Next was prayer. It was the priest's job to lead the soldiers in prayer, to keep their faith in the Emperor strong in order to stiffen morale in combat, and to bless vehicles and their crews before major upcoming actions. She was also responsible for monitoring the flock's spiritual health, and answer individual questions about troubling theological matters.

"Agh, just give me a minute alright?" Taki flipped through his leather-bound copy of the Imperial Creed, trying to find the page with the prayer that he was supposed to lead. Would it have killed whoever wrote it to have organized all of those into one place, instead of spreading them out among reams upon reams of proofs regarding the Emperor's divinity?

"Mitsuha, I think the one you want is on page seven thousand eighty something…?" Sayaka offered.

Taki flipped to the indicated page, but it wasn't what he needed. Rather, it was a description of the days within the weeklong festival of the Emperor's Ascension.

Taki's curiosity was momentarily piqued, and he paused to read. The first day was dedicated to Sanguinius, and was coterminous with Sanguinala according to this world's practices. This planet was called Kaedun, and he recalled something similar being practiced on his own planet as well. It signified bonds broken, past ties cast away in the name of duty.

The second day represented the Emperor's wounding at the hands of the Arch-Traitor. Catastrophe. Fading hope.

The third day commemorated the sacrifice of Ollanius Pius. Defiance against impossible odds.

The fourth day, the final blow that obliterated the Arch-Traitor.

The fifth, the recovery of the Emperor by Rogal Dorn. Sorrow and loss.

The sixth, the last mote of psychic strength passed by Malcador to the Emperor, enabling the Emperor to speak to his followers one last time and give them his final instructions. A final gambit to salvage something from the jaws of disaster.

And the seventh and final day, the interment of the Emperor on the Golden Throne. Transition.

Of course, as mildly fascinating as this was, none of it was helping him with what he was supposed to be doing. Already, some of the soldiers were losing patience, and groups were starting to split off from the flock.

Taki was ready to admit defeat as well. Though the deeply reinforced rules of social conduct kept him from speaking his doubts out loud, he just couldn't grasp why this chore was so important. What did it matter whether or not he said spoke some prayers to the company's vehicles, or read some words off of a page for others to follow. Life down here was hard enough without having to waste time on maintaining faith.

The base was quieter during prayer time, and Taki's attention was drawn to a bout of loud talking and laughter. He looked up from his book, noticing that it was a group of young men not far removed from his age, approaching the base from one of the winding side corridors. They obviously weren't members of the militia, dressed as they were in an array of brightly colored, mismatched costumes and armors that were so garish that they hurt the eye to look at. Some of them even had their hair done into frankly absurd shapes, reminding Taki of some depictions he'd once seen of the Eldar xenos race.

Oh. Taki knew what this was. A brat gang from the upper hive, come down to prey on the denizens of the bottom-most habs.

Back on his world at least, brat gangs were something of a scandalous thing among the nobility, something to be concealed and never spoken about lest it tar the family's reputation. Taki himself had uncovered a few of them in his time, particularly among families with large households where the youngest were idle and hard to keep track of. Information was power in the upper hive.

* * *

...

* * *

The meeting chamber was lined with wealthy aristocrats, among them some of the richest and most influential people on the planet. Their clothing was agleam with gold and silver, adorned with sashes inlaid with gems that could have sold for more than a lifetime's worth of wages from a denizen of the lower hives. They sat along a table that was ablaze with silverware and spices, watching and speaking carefully with one another, smiling with their mouths but not with their eyes.

Though these meetings between the spirelords resulted in less spilled blood than the violent clash of armies, they often had just as profound an effect on the future of a world or a sector.

Mitsuha's entrance drew a round of stares, with a hint of mockery in every eye and a curdled smirk on every pair of lips. It took her a moment to realize what was the problem here.

Next to the flowing gowns of the ladies present and the silver-threaded dress uniforms of the men, her garb was positively drab by comparison. She had selected some of the less ostentatious items of clothing that she'd found in the closet attached to her room, hoping not to be too conspicuous, only to find that in a panoply of glittering jewelry it was the plain unpolished stone that stood out.

Mitsuha felt her face flush from the sudden attention. It was just like when it happened at home, except infinitely more judgemental. This was all Taki Tachibana's fault!

A servant arrived, presenting Mitsuha with a warm towel with which to wipe her hands, while the man who she recognized in this dream as her 'father' and Lord Tachibana indicated for her to take a seat from his place at the head of the table. Mitsuha did as bade, taking a seat to the right of a young woman who looked to be about her age, whose long, wavy brown hair extended down past her shoulders. A flash of surprise appeared across the woman's face, melting away a moment later into a smirk filled with wry amusement. Lord Tachibana on the other hand, his hair carefully parted to two sides, could not keep himself from adjusting his glasses in irritation.

Eh? Mitsuha wondered if she'd done something wrong again. This dream was way too detailed and complicated.

At last Lord Tachibana collected himself and raised his glass, bobbing it in a kind of salute with his other hand touching the bottom. The rest of the table followed suit, some bowing slightly as they did. Mitsuha copied them, always half a second behind everyone else.

"Friends and family." Lord Tachibana begins. "You are all gathered here today to see to the confirmation of the coming union between the Tachibana and Okudera houses. The joining of our families will allow us to consolidate our power and wealth over Ceadounus, and perhaps even form a political bloc strong enough to let us raise one of our own to the seat of the planetary governor."

Ceadounus. So that was the name of this planet that she was on? And what was this about a union now?

"I now offer the floor up to any attendees who may wish to speak." Lord Tachibana finished and sat back down.

It soon became evident to Mitsuha that the invitation to speak wasn't actually an open invitation. One by one, the other guests rose to voice their support for the union in an obviously pre-established order, delivering carefully rehearsed lines pertaining to its projected effect on their own spheres of influence. At last it came time for the woman to Mitsuha's left to speak. She stood up stiffly, a hint of bitterness in her eyes as she looked straight ahead.

"It is evident that this marriage will ultimately be of benefit to both our families." She said, terse and clipped, with an expression formed from brittle plaster. Her shoulders shook slightly. "Thus I, Miki Okudera, will abide by this, and I expect great things to come from it in the future."

Miki sat down, and Mitsuha realized that all eyes had turned to her, waiting expectantly for her to speak next. So this woman next to her was Miki Okudera? And wasn't she Taki Tachibana while she was in this body, the only son of the- oh.

"Wait, so the two of us are getting married?" Mitsuha said, pointing first to herself, then to the young woman beside her.

The room fell silent, save for a peal of laughter from Miki Okudera. After all of the minced words and carefully practiced statements, it was actually the most candid and refreshing sound Mitsuha had heard from this meeting thus far.

* * *

...

* * *

"Look at those grunts over there." The apparent leader of the gang spoke up from the edge of the base, ostensibly toward his half-dozen companions but loudly enough that the militia company could hear.

"What's the point of 'em? Better off working on an assembly line where their kind belongs. Suckin' up the city's money and never had to deal with anything bigger than a prison break. We could easily handle something like that, right boys?" He continued, drawing a round of cheers from his group.

Taki tried to tune them out, and put aside the flare of emotion that welled up whenever his limits were being tested. This wasn't really his problem, and he had to admit to his slight shame that he technically had more in common with the brats than he did with the rest of the soldiers, just on the basis of their shared social status.

"You freaks are so full of crap." One passing soldier shot back at the brats.

"Hey, were we speaking to you?" The leader replied with an obnoxious grin. "You better watch the backtalk. My father owns this entire section, including those little hovels that you live in. One word from me and you'll all be scraping for a living down under, and maybe some day we'll pay you a visit."

Something snapped within Taki, and he felt his feet starting to walk toward the scene of the argument. No, this was where he was right now, so this was _what_ he was now. The gunnery sergeant and ordinator had been going out of their way to support him all day, he didn't want to lose that feeling of connection with them while he was so far away from home. None of the soldiers here had ever really harmed him either, and it wasn't right to have all of their persistent hardships be the subject of mockery by a bunch of vapid idiots, who had just come down for a quick jaunt before returning to the upper hive.

Plus, here was a situation that Taki actually knew how to deal with, and a chance to let loose some of the day's irritations all in one.

"And what's it to you?" Taki cut in, fixing the gang-leader with a look. "Just what is it that makes you think you can come around here and talk like that?"

"Mitsuha!" Sayaka said from beside her, but Taki's ship had already taken off and it was too late for the nuts and bolts to vote.

"Didn't I just explain? Or has the smell down here gone and scrambled your brain?" The leader replied. "This section belongs to my family, and so do all of you."

"And what's your word really worth?" Taki shot back. "Just by you being down here at all, I can tell you aren't the oldest, probably not even the second or third. So what are you, the fourth? Fifth? Even lower?"

"You…" The leader's eyebrow twitched.

"So, not gonna inherit, and that's why you have to soothe your ego by coming down and bothering people?" Taki pressed the attack, giving vent to the day's frustrations in his words. "Can't make anything of yourself either, so you just waste your father's money, and come down here walking around like you're some kind of gang-boss and think it counts for something right?

Taki's mind flashed back to the incident at the shooting gallery. "You think this is funny? Think all this is just a game? If your dad knows about this, then he knows that things can happen to you no matter how many fancy weapons you carry around in that ridiculous costume of yours."

The leader's lack of retort was deafening at this point, matched by the intensifying fury of his glare.

Seeing the reaction, Taki couldn't keep a smirk off his face. So things were similar here, and he could tell that he had hit a nerve. The long practice he'd put in for sparring at court began to assert itself further. Passive-aggressive insults and 'candid observations' were practically the foundation of courtly feuds, and compared to the people he usually dealt with, this guy practically had a window into his vacuous head.

Well, if this idiot was here to pick a fight, he certainly wasn't going to back down from putting him in his place.

"I think we've hit the center of the issue haven't we?" Taki said, matching the gang-leader's look with an insufferable smirk of his own. "I get it now. Daddy just doesn't care what happens to you."

"You're not the heir. Throne, you aren't even the backup, or the backup's backup. You're just this useless load around his neck that he's had to carry around all his life. I bet once all's said and done, if you end up not coming back, he'll even be quietly relieved to have one less trouble-making son to have to deal with. That's how it always is, isn't it?"

The leader said nothing, but his hand swung down and drew forth a plasma pistol. Its reaction chamber ignited, causing the ground around him to be stained an incandescent blue. Taki's eyes went wide as the gun was leveled at him, unable to look away from the glowing barrel. Some part of him screamed at him to run away, but his body was frozen, stiff like a board.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Taki dimly heard Tessie voice, pulling him out of his stupor. Only now did Taki noticed that he'd positioned himself next to a jutting corner, ready to take cover should any shooting break out, while his fingers were already folding over the grip of his own lasgun. "You really dumb enough to attack a priest? You know what they call that?"

Taki glanced back at him, noticing that Sayaka is there too, a pict-recorder gripped firmly in her hand. She'd already recorded the entire scene.

"Heresy." Tessie continued, chuckling slightly to himself. "It'll be a public execution for you for sure."

The brat gangers were looking anxious now. Some were backing away from their leader. None seemed inclined to speak.

"Gimme some time off then would you, gunnery sarge?" One soldier said with a wide grin on his face. "I wouldn't mind showing up if it means I get to see some high-rider brat get what's coming to him."

"Not gonna be seeing the Emperor on the other side either if you hurt one of His priests." Another soldier added. "Eternal damnation was it? Fire and brimstone and all that? That was what that crazy-eyed confessor that we had before was always flipping out about. Didn't like him back then, but I'll be damn glad if he's right about you right now."

The leader's face was trembling and pale, a combination of rage and building fear at the realization of what he'd just done. With a growl, he turned, taking his companions with him. They vanished into the dimly lit corridors, their gaudy colors fading into the shadows. It was then that Taki let out his breath and practically sank to the ground.

Dinner didn't taste any better than the previous meals had, but the atmosphere was more upbeat. The air was filled with the constant hum of conversation, much of it about the confrontation with the brat gang at the edges of the base. A couple of soldiers even came over to congratulate Taki for his defiance.

"Hey, didn't know you had it in you your grace." They said.

"How'd you know so much about them high-riders?"

"You ever been up there or somethin'?"

Taki elected not to answer the specific inquiries, but it still felt good to have done something productive, after an entire exhausting day of abject failure.

Returning to his tiny room for the evening and shutting the door, Taki suddenly remembered the note he had found in his drawer back home. The icy daggers of mortal terror had long since passed, leaving him smiling to himself at having put those brats in their place. He picked up a pen, but there was so much that he wanted to say that trying to scrawl it all out on an arm was a non-starter.

Taki rummaged through the dresser looking for something to write on, finally picking up a journal tucked into the preacher's sparse possessions. He flipped through it, scanning over a few of the entries, though his grasp of High Gothic wasn't good enough to understand some of the military and religious terms that were in use here. Every entry was dated, though the dates were listed in Kaedun planetary local rather than Terran standard. Taki supposed that since the lower hive had no contact with the chartists, most people here had little reason to know much about standard time. Scribbling down a summary in low gothic and dating it to local according to the time of the previous entry, Taki placed the journal back and slipped into his bedroll for the night.

* * *

...

* * *

Mitsuha stood on a balcony, enclosed by a transparent dome to keep the air in, relieved to be away from the meeting hall and the tension within it.

The meeting had been called off. Mitsuha's offhanded remark had sown a nugget of doubt into the carefully ordered procession, and the entire facade of flawless unity had come crashing down under the weight of procedures and bloodlines, family honor and all of that malarkey. Everything was so complicated up here.

Mitsuha gazed out at the setting sun. The rising heat from below made its disc waver like flickering fire, painting the horizon with a golden shroud. It really was like the sunrise in reverse, but with its own distinct flair, a final swan song before the curtain of night drew down to close the day.

Mitsuha noticed Miki drawing up beside her, an unlit lho-stick in her hand.

"They help me relax." Miki said, noticing Mitsuha looking at her stick. She lit one end of the tube, then brought the other to her mouth and breathed in a lungful of narcotic-laced smoke. She sighed contentedly, allowing her head to drop and her stiff and dignified gait to relax.

"May I have some?" Mitsuha asked. Lho-sticks occupied a gray area of legality within her hive's militia; a technically punishable offense, but one that was normally overlooked as long as its use didn't get out of hand among the soldiers. Mitsuha herself wasn't a regular user, but Throne knew she'd partaken a handful of times to help herself relax after a stressful day.

Miki gave Mitsuha a half-lidded stare, then passed the tube over without comment. Mitsuha thanked her with a nod, raised the filtered end to her mouth, and inhaled.

The effect was staggering. The sensation was like warm honey being poured over her nerves, like her limbs were floating. Mitsuha's head spun, and she had to raise a hand to the railing to keep herself from falling over. It was so much purer and stronger than the tubes she'd shared back in the lower hives.

She looked back at Miki. She didn't seem to be affected anywhere near as much. She must be a regular user.

"You must feel so powerless, to have something so important be decided for you." Mitsuha said, passing the tube back. Lower hivers like herself were often willing to try anything to escape the shackles of life down below, but here in the spires there was a different sort of cage altogether.

Miki chuckled, running a hand through her hair. "What about you? You're riding on the other end of this, you know."

Mitsuha shrugged. She herself really wasn't, but the boy whose body she was inhabiting certainly was. She thought back to his home, and its countless rooms covered in glitz and glamor. In hindsight, it all felt so hollow and sterile.

Mitsuha was beginning to piece together just a bit about how this boy felt in his life. And if his arranged partner chose to cope with this method, just how was he handling it?

Suddenly, the view of the sun and the sky that the spire-manse afforded seemed to lose a bit of its initial luster.

"We are the next generation aren't we?" Mitsuha replied, forcing herself over the slope of awkwardness that came from speaking for someone else. "The future is in our hands."

Miki sighed and lowered her tube. "You say that, but I'm sure you know how it is. They just don't listen. Nobody is listening."

"The Emperor is always listening." Mitsuha said, leaning in a bit for emphasis.

That caught Miki by surprise. Her fingers loosened, and she nearly dropped her lho-stick before catching herself, settling instead for a raised eyebrow.

"I didn't know you were so faithful." Miki replied. "The surprises just keep on coming. What else is underneath there, I wonder?"

Mitsuha paused to re-contextualize the remark. So this noble boy wasn't particularly faithful then? That was unfortunate.

Mitsuha recalled the words that her abbess had spoken to her during her last visit to the chapel.

"The Emperor helps those who help themselves." Mitsuha repeated them. "His words give us certainty wherever we are unsure, and his presence gives us resolve when our own courage fails. Speak with conviction, and take what is yours."

"You seem to know a lot about this." Miki said. She moved closer, and a flash of emotion appeared on her face, a moment of vulnerability as she resolved some internal conflict.

"Will you show me?" She said at last.

Mitsuha smiled. A warm feeling blossomed in her chest. Here was someone in need of spiritual guidance, and her words were making the difference.

"I'd be happy to." Mitsuha said. Despite all the gems and glitter, the sound of those words in her ears was the most valuable thing she'd gotten ahold of all day.

"Well not today, since it's getting late." Miki said, turning and walking back toward the hive structure. She paused, tilting her head to look back over her shoulder.

"I think I like you better today. Without the mask." She said, returning Mitsuha's smile. "Let's see where this goes then, shall we?"

And then she was gone.

Mitsuha stayed on the balcony, looking up at the stars that appeared in the wake of the setting sun. She stayed out staring at them for a while longer before returning to her room in the manse, managing to navigate the halls and rooms correctly this time without assistance. Noticing a data-slate on one of the dressers, and recalling the note that had been written on her arm the day prior, she powered it on in order to leave a reply.

The data-slate was a high-quality model, capable of storing a veritable library of files in its memory. Each one was dated to Terran standard, something she was not particularly familiar with. Mitsuha flipped through a few, chuckling to herself at the descriptions of courtly intrigue and verbal fencing within. Was this what he did to occupy his time?

A few of the entries detailed past encounters with Miki Okudera, complaining of her insincerity and caustic demeanor.

"Now, you haven't exactly been an open and honest soul yourself there, Taki." Mitsuha said to no one in particular. She paused for a moment to stare at her reflection on the screen, the reflection of the noble boy whose body she was inhabiting. He wasn't bad looking, and staring into his face, it almost felt as if he were beside her all this time. A fellow soldier who had fought with her to get through this bewildering mess of a day.

Opening up a blank file, Mitsuha recalled that the note written in Low Gothic, asking who she was. She imagined Taki Tachibana in her body back on Kaedun, writing that on her arm before going to sleep. It was a funny image, but she supposed there was an inkling of plausibility to it.

Mitsuha set the slate's input language to Low Gothic, and filled up an entry with a description of the day's events, particularly her talk afterwards with Miki Okudera. With that done, she signed her name on the bottom placed the slate back where she'd found it, and helped herself to a quick bath before sliding underneath the bedcovers.


	4. Connection

**Chapter 4: Connection**

* * *

...

* * *

Mitsuha yawned and stretched her arms. The familiar walls were around her once again. She was back home in the lower hive, and the dream was over.

Mitsuha rose and put on her clothes. She frowned as she noticed that the contents of her dresser were a mess. When did she do that? Plus, her journal had been left in a different place from where she usually put it.

Mitsuha opened the diary to the last occupied page, and stared for a moment at its contents. Staring back was an entry scribbled in a completely unfamiliar handwriting, which she had no memory of putting down. It took up a full three pages. An accident at the shooting range? Put some noble brats in their place? Something about a plasma pistol? What was going on?

Something tingled in the back of Mitsuha's mind, but it was quickly put aside when her stomach grumbled in response. Whatever. There were things to worry about now and things to worry about later, and the matter of the journal fell squarely into the second category.

Tessie and Sayaka joined Mitsuha at breakfast, which began uneventfully save for the ever-present stares. But this time the mood seemed to be a bit different than the last time this'd happened. A bit lighter perhaps?

Tessie was also not bothering to ward off the looks this time. Maybe he knew something.

"Say, doesn't it seem like everyone is staring at me again?" Mitsuha asked, trying to tease an answer out of him.

"Yeah, obviously, after what you did yesterday." Tessie replied, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Could you be more specific?"

"You don't remember again?" Sayaka said, looking on with a worried expression. "I wonder if this is going to be a regular thing from now on. Have you thought about seeing the medicae. I know supplies are short, but I'm getting kind of worried about you."

"Anyway…" Sayaka then launched into an extended description of the day's events, with Tessie interjecting at points to fill in the parts that she wasn't present for. Mitsuha listened with growing trepidation as the story veered into the confrontation with the noble brats.

"Here, see for yourself. I got almost the whole thing on the pict-recorder." Sayaka passed the bulky device over to Mitsuha, and hit the replay button.

"...what," was all that Mitsuha could utter in response to the images and sounds being played back at her.

It was clearly her voice that was doing the speaking, but the content of her words was just completely alien. Riling up the brats about their family status? She didn't know anything about stuff like that. Even more shocking was the image of her freezing up as the gang-leader drew a plasma pistol on her. It took a considerable effort to resist the urge to hang her head in shame.

"And there's me!" Tessie banged a fist against the table as he appeared on screen, the pict-recorder panning slightly to him while he cautioned the brats about their impending act of heresy. Mitsuha took a moment to thank the Emperor that he had failed notice her unbearably disgraceful behavior.

The recording ended, but Mitsuha stared for a moment longer at the blank screen. A growing trickle of fear grew within her. She shivered, even though the room was as warm as always.

"Sorry, I need to go check something." Mitsuha said, standing up and practically flying from her seat.

"Wait, Mitsuha!" Sayaka called after her. "You haven't finished your meal!"

Mitsuha wasn't having any of it. She dashed back to her room and slammed the door, pulling out her journal and opening it to the last written page. There it all was, breakfast, accident, confrontation with the brats exactly as her friends had described.

She had been acting on her own, with no memory of the events passed. A dreadful possibility loomed large in Mitsuha's mind.

Malignant influences from the beyond. It was something that Mitsuha had been cautioned repeatedly about during her priestly education. In fact, one of the primary roles of the preacher was to watch for signs of this among the flock.

Mitsuha's breathing quickened, and her head felt faint. How had it come to this? Hadn't she served the Emperor well? Was it her doubt that had caused this to happen? Was she being punished?

Mitsuha trudged through her tasks for the remainder of the day, before excusing herself as quickly as possible to make the long journey up to her favorite chapel. The abbess there would know what was the matter with her. She would know what to do.

That very same abbess greeted her at the entrance, ushering Mitsuha in with a welcoming arm.

"You look troubled." She said. "Is something the matter?"

"Well, things with me have been… strange." Mitsuha began, lowering herself to her knees, facing the statue of the Emperor with her eyes closed. Despite her fears, she still didn't want to just come out with everything immediately. 'I think I could be possessed by a daemon' was not a very good line for starting a conversation after all.

"Strange?" The abbess replied, pacing slowly around Mitsuha. "Hmm, but I don't seem to notice anything strange about you."

"Well, I promise that that's the case." Mitsuha said, opening her eyes briefly as the other woman circled around in front of her. "And I'm starting to feel that I might be being punished by the Emperor for some lacking of mine."

"And so I'm afraid." She admitted, her voice cracking slightly. "I fear I might have angered him, but I don't know what my faults are, or what I could have done to cause this."

The abbess's response was to chuckle, which set off a brief spike of irritation within Mitsuha, that melted away as she felt the older woman's hand on her shoulder.

"Oh, child, I don't know what they taught you here but I can promise that the Emperor does not punish." The abbess said. She peered into Mitsuha's face, until Mitsuha could see her own reflection on the other woman's dark pupils.

"The Emperor does not punish, and He is not to be feared." She said, her voice carrying a sort of mysterious quality that brought Mitsuha down from her emotional fever-pitch. "The road to damnation is one that must be walked by one's own will, but even for those who go down that path, He still holds out His hand to show them the way back."

"The Emperor protects." She concluded with that familiar phrase, the first phrase taught to every preacher of the creed.

Taking it all in, Mitsuha heaved a sigh of relief and felt something within her settle into place. She stood up and bowed to the abbess, then made her way back down toward the lower hive.

Mitsuha frowned. Reassured though she may have been, there was still the matter of her mysterious behavior. Though she'd been left with no memories, the evidence that she had acted in a strange manner yesterday was still right there.

As she trekked back down to her zone, walking past gleaming upper hive estates and architectural embellishments, Mitsuha was reminded of something. Some distant memory rose to the fore of her mind, images of life in the upper spire, like the rays of the Kaedun sun trying to pierce through the layers of haze. Sunrise, servants, meeting, balcony… suddenly what had once seemed to be a completely ridiculous conclusion now loomed large over Mitsuha's thoughts.

Could it be- no it had to be.

* * *

...

* * *

Taki sat up, letting his covers slide down to his waist. Blearily, he blinked until his vision resolved. He looked down at his wrinkled shirt and pants. Why did he wear his outside clothes to bed?

Taki remained mired in his thoughts as a parade of servants entered with his breakfast. He went through the necessary motions as one of them helped him undress, while another brought him a fresh set of clothing. He gestured for his data-slate, and it was placed in his hands forthwith. He grimaced as he remembered that he needed to rehearse his lines. Today was the day of the meeting when he and Miki Okudera were to have their impending marriage finalized in front of everyone.

Taki's felt his breathing quicken. A tiny part of him considered the idea of yelling something outrageous at the meeting to throw the whole thing into disarray.

He quelled the thought. Distasteful as the idea of marrying Okudera was, at least this way he knew what was in store for him. There was no telling what the future would hold if he tried to throw it off like that.

After living all his life with everything set for him, he didn't know what to do with that uncertainty.

The data-slate's screen flashed on, displaying a new file that had been written and dated to… today? Taki opened it up, and rubbed his eyes to make sure he was reading its contents correctly.

 _'...and on the balcony, shared a lho-stick and had a nice talk with Miss Okudera. I think we get along really well.'_

What. Taki cast his gaze around automatically, almost searching with his eyes for someone to blame for this. He gave up after a while and looked back down. There was no reason for any of his staff to go through all of this trouble, just to pull such a transparent prank on him.

"Taki." Taki looked up to see his father entering, while the staff bowed and departed through the door.

"I won't speak again about what you did yesterday." His father began. "But while I was disappointed initially, there appears to be some upside to the present situation."

What yesterday?

"Things are a bit uncertain, and so I've not made up my mind about how to feel about it right now." Lord Tachibana sighed.

"What do you mean?" Taki quirked up an eyebrow.

"Miss Okudera wishes to see you in an hour. I recommend you be there, and then we will consider how to proceed further." His father replied, before letting himself out.

"Wait what?" Taki called after him after a moment's pause. "What do you mean she wants to see me?"

But he was already gone, leaving Taki to eat his meal in silence. Why did Miki Okudera want to see him? She never wanted to see him, and there was no love lost going the other way either. Throne, if they ended up living in the same household one day, they'd probably sleep in separate rooms.

Taki considered the possibility that this was an elaborate ploy on Okudera's part to belittle him somehow. But for what? That was the billion credit question.

Taki hardened his resolve. Fine. If Miki Okudera wanted to play stupid games with him, then she'd get a stupid prize in return.

Miki Okudera was waiting for Taki on the balcony to the meeting room, where strangely enough, no preparations were occurring despite the meeting that was due to happen in just a few hours. The first thing that struck Taki about the situation was that she was dressed quite plainly in a black top and a white-flared skirt. She had left her hair unornamented, with none of the usual ostentation that she wore as if to say 'I am better than you' without actually saying it.

The second was that she was holding a copy of the Imperial Creed, leatherbound and lacquered with delicate gold leaf.

The sight of the tome triggered a cascade of memories in Taki's mind. Images from his dream welled up: taking a similar book with him in the morning, flipping through it to try to find the right passage. He shook his head to get rid of them.

"Is something the matter?" Miki said, her eyes widening fractionally in what seemed to be genuine concern. Taki looked back at her, trying to peer through the mask. This time there was nothing.

"Was the smoke last night your first time? I had a feeling that it was too strong." Miki ran a hand through her pack, drawing out a small vial of liquid.

"Here's a detox. Take it." She tossed the vial to him, which he just barely caught in his fumbling fingers.

Taki turned the vial over in his hands. He opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. Miki had never behaved this way toward him before. Taki had come prepared with a veritable arsenal of comebacks and verbal barbs, and now found himself at a sudden loss for words.

"I think I'll be okay." He said shakily, handing the vial back. "What did you want to see me for?"

"This, of course." Miki said, holding out her copy of the Imperial Creed. "You promised to teach me all about this. You remember, right?"

"I said that?" Taki pointed at himself. But he didn't know anything about the Imperial Creed, not even in his own dreams! His mind raced. Excuse, he needed an excuse.

"Here, I even marked out a few pages that I wanted to ask you about." She said, showing him the side of the book with a couple of folded corners.

"Could we do this some other time?" Taki said, taking a half-step back. What in the world was happening?

"Okay, I'll let you off this time." Miki shrugged. "I suppose I did notify your father without asking you first. Will you let me know next time when you're ready?"

"Sure." Taki replied. He recalled what he had seen on his data-slate, and the mysterious new entry describing things that he didn't remember doing.

Racing back through the halls and holing up in his room, Taki activated the slate again and pored over its contents. No wonder there was nobody preparing the meeting room, because it had already happened, and then it had been disrupted somehow and come up inconclusive. No, not somehow. According to the log, _he_ was the one who had disrupted it, by just blurting out something randomly. That explained his father's reaction, and Miki's as well, but not his lack of recollection regarding the event.

As Taki stared at his data-slate, half-formed and partially recalled memories flashed through his mind. Meal-bricks. Target practice. Brats. The conclusion formed in his mind.

Did that mean then, that that he and that Ministorum priest from another planet were really switching places?

* * *

...

* * *

It was early morning, and all was quiet in the Tachibana manse. The sun's first rays peeked over the clouds, caressing the sides of the hive's towering spires.

"Good morning!" Mitsuha said, waving to the stunned servants as she allowed herself into the manse's kitchen. Retrieving some food and cookware, she began to whip up a quick breakfast for herself.

"Young master, perhaps you would like us to prepare that for you." One of the staff offered.

"Nope! It's fine." Mitsuha stopped her with an open hand. "Feel free to take the extra time off."

It was another day in the upper spire life of Taki Tachibana, and Mitsuha had come to understand something about why she was here. Taki was a prominent noble of roughly the same age as her, living in the upper spire of the Ceadounus Primaris Hive. Two or three times a week at random the two of them would switch bodies, always after they went to sleep.

Mitsuha hummed an old chapel tune to herself as she jotted down a note in Taki's data-slate. With their physical separation spanning whole worlds and systems, leaving notes for one another was the only way they could communicate.

 _'_ _Made breakfast on my own without help! Step one to turning you into a better person. And stop making a scene whenever you eat in the mess hall. Get used to the food there already!'_

Mitsuha briefly imagined herself as the subject of one of the Ministorum's proselytizing holos. The cause of the switching was still unknown of course, but after speaking with the abbess of her favorite chapel, Mitsuha couldn't keep her face from lighting up at the idea that maybe it was the Emperor's will that had made it happen. The Emperor worked in mysterious ways after all, and here was an opportunity like no other to bring the faith to a number of very influential people. Already Mitsuha had sent a missive to Miki Okudera, letting her know that today was a good day to have that discussion that she'd promised. And Taki himself seemed to be well-meaning, if a bit sheltered, but that was what she was here to correct!

Mitsuha took a step back, the back of her leg bumping into a crate of foodstuffs from the manse's private greenhouse. One of the servants apologized and approached to take it away, but Mitsuha waved him off and crouched down to pick it up herself. But as soon as she tried to stand, her knees buckled, and the servant had to come and support her anyway.

Once the crate was deposited away, Mitsuha took a moment look herself up and down. Taki's body really was kind of fragile and out of shape. In any case, as long as she was here, that was another thing she could improve on.

Leaving her breakfast to cool, Mitsuha asked one of the staff for directions to one of the manse's more gardens which she could use for a jog. Perhaps the one that purported to emulate the species found on ancient Terra. Then, before leaving, she flicked the data-slate back on and added another line to the day's entry.

 _'_ _You're too weak! Step two: from now on there will be morning runs and evening exercises for you. Make sure to keep them up when I'm not here, and make sure to do them in my body too.'_

Thus it was that Mitsuha was forced to limp to her meetup with Miki, after a mere five minute run left her lungs burning and her legs wracked with cramps. How was it even possible that somebody this delicate was alive?

"You sure you're okay today?" Miki asked from a seated position, having pulled out a pair of chairs onto the balcony for them. "You were acting a little different yesterday."

Well yes, that's because it was Taki in control yesterday. Mitsuha was just thankful that the klutz whose body she was inhabiting didn't mess the whole thing up. At a stroke she had turned what was once an antagonistic relationship with Miki into a budding friendship. Taki had better be grateful!

"I'm feeling great, thanks!" Mitsuha smiled back at her.

"Oh, but just give me one moment to finish something up and then we can begin." She raised a hand for pause. She took out the data-slate, and made another addition to her daily record.

 _'_ _Discussing the creed with Miki Okudera, have a very good feeling about this. Your relationship is going great, thanks to me! Oh, but I don't want to leave you out of this either, so just address any questions of faith you may have to me in my journal and I'll answer them as soon as I can.'_

* * *

...

* * *

Stupid Mitsuha, Taki repeated to himself in his thoughts. He had just trudged back to her room after another grueling day, which wasn't putting him in a particularly good mood. This was all her fault.

It didn't help that he wasn't exactly looking forward to the results once the switch reverted and he returned to his own body. Last time he'd gone back he had woken up so cramped and sore that he'd actually cried out from the sudden pain, which brought the servants running and had caused him no shortage of embarrassment.

Taki removed his Ministorum robe and rummaged through Mitsuha's dresser, digging out her journal and opening it to the first empty page.

 _'_ _Throne damn it Mitsuha, you had better stop exercising in my body! It's my body!'_ He wrote in big, angry lettering. He glanced at her reflection in the mirror, trying to picture her reaction. It felt very cathartic, almost as if he were blowing up at her in person.

And then there was the matter of the messages that Mitsuha left him, specifically the religious tract. What did she mean she didn't want to leave him out of it? And to address any questions to her? And that the switching was a miracle from the God-Emperor? If it was a miracle from the God-Emperor, then being stuck down in the lower hive meant that Taki was getting punished didn't it?

Miki Okudera might have been taken in by Mitsuha's proselytizing, but what could have given her the idea that Taki wanted anything to do with her preaching? And she said it would make him a better person? Could that woman get any more infuriatingly smug?

 _'_ _And don't be so full of yourself, and stop bothering me about the creed!'_ Taki added to the note. _'I don't want to hear any of your sermons.'_

Taki was jolted from his thoughts by a knock on the door. He almost yelled at whoever it was to go away, but supposed that he had to take it. Donning the Ministorum robe - something that he was getting better at - and folding away the journal, he walked to the door and opened it by a crack.

"Sorry, your grace. Do you have a moment?" The soldier on the other side said, looking down with a slightly shamefaced expression. Taki had seen him around a few times, though he hadn't quite gotten the man's name yet.

"Fine." Taki said, letting himself out and closing the door behind him. "Is there something you need?"

"Well, you know the situation with my brother, after that prison break two years ago and all." The soldier said. Taki didn't know of course, but from the man's melancholy expression it wasn't difficult to guess.

"Well, I was catchin' some shut-eye between drills, and then I saw him again."

"A dream?" Taki asked.

"More than that, your grace. I had dreams about him in the first few months of course, but this was more than that. It was like I could really see him, and touch him with my hands."

"Sorry." The man shook his head to clear his thoughts. "I was just wanting to know if there's anything for us after death. I know what the creed says about that, but I was hoping to hear it from you, your grace. And if you could, maybe we could say a prayer for his soul together."

Taki sucked in a breath through his teeth. Prayer today had gone only marginally better than in all the previous times he'd been down here, and he still didn't know his way around the sections of the book. His sole consolation had been the fact that most of the soldiers were starting to acclimate to his periodic incapability, but that was going to be of little comfort here.

"Sorry but, could we do this some other time?" Taki tried the same excuse that had gotten him out of his meeting with Miki. It wasn't his fault he knew nothing about these prayers, and Mitsuha could handle it once she got back.

Taki was unprepared for the change in the other man's expression. It was so hurt, so despondent that he almost considered making something up to try and make him feel better. He stopped himself. Whatever came out of his mouth would sound so obviously fake that it would probably seem more like mockery than a sincere attempt to comfort him. He watched in silence as the soldier nodded and mumbled out an apology, before trudging away as if he'd had lead weights tied to ankles.

As he returned to Mitsuha's room, Taki tried to imagine how the man must have felt. Taki himself had no siblings, and there were certainly no deaths in his family. However, there was the matter of his mother, who had left them a few years ago. She and his father had argued a lot when they were together, but the wound of her departure was something that he still carried to the present day. One day she was just gone, and they'd never heard from her again.

Taki fought back a tightening feeling in his throat. Rumors were that she'd chartered a ship to another planet to get away from their arranged marriage, but for the first few months Taki had held out hope that she would return, and that their family could go back to a semblance of normalcy. Eventually the hope had faded, turning into a canker of bitterness and resentment that had seen Taki lashing out at his father and at their servants for a time. Eventually that had gone away as well, leaving an empty void behind.

She could even have died, Taki thought, and he wouldn't even know about it. He himself had never left his world, but he knew well the horror stories from those who had braved the vagaries of the Warp.

And that was it wasn't it. Life down in the lower hive was so uncertain. The man had come to him having lost a brother to that uncertainty, but if he could have known that his brother was waiting for him on the other side, with a prayer added in to speed his passage to the Emperor, then that would have provided him with some stability with which to help him get through another day down here.

Was this also why Mitsuha was so devout?

Taki was slightly surprised to find that he had taken out Mitsuha's journal again, with her writing pen in his hand. He made to release it, then stopped himself. No, he did have something else that he wanted to say.

Gripping the pen, Taki crossed out the complaint that he had written to Mitsuha for her incessant sermonizing. It galled at him slightly to show weakness this way, but he pushed past the feeling, and added a new line underneath it. He supposed that it was alright if it was her.

 _"_ _Mitsuha, I wanted to ask, is there anything waiting for us after we die?"_


	5. Concordance

**Chapter 5: Concordance**

* * *

...

* * *

Dawn. Another day for Mitsuha in the upper spire life.

Mitsuha sat up on Taki's bed, a procession of thoughts drifting through her mind. She needed to contact Miki, and let her know that 'Taki' was available for theological discussions. And then there was the question that Taki had left her during their last exchange.

Mitsuha slid off the side of the bed to fetch Taki's data-slate. She made her way toward the nearest window, waited until the first sunbeams struck her face, then flipped the device on and began to type. The words just poured out as she wove together stories and statements, sightings of living saints and smaller miracles where the dead had returned to safeguard the living, along with a little bit of boasting as payback for that initial comment that Taki had crossed out.

Not too much boasting though. She didn't want to discourage him from asking again after all.

The sun's glare reflected off the data-slate's screen, producing an image of Taki's face. Looking at it, Mitsuha saw herself mouthing the words that she was writing.

She'd also written her piece in a conversational style, like one half of a spoken exchange with the other speaker muted. That was just how it had come out.

"I hope you actually read it all." She spoke to the reflection. Her tract was already quite long, and there was still more that she wanted to say.

She was needed. She was being relied on.

There was a knocking on the door. It wasn't the meek, restrained manner of knocking that the servants used, but a steady pounding that announced an intent to enter regardless of permission granted.

So it was Taki's father, Taiga Tachibana then. Mitsuha had not actually had any lengthy interactions with the man despite having gone through several switches; it looked like Taki and his father weren't very close.

"Come in." Mitsuha said to save him any further trouble, then shut the slate off and waited.

"Taki, did you get anything on those Munitorum bastards?" Taki's father said as he entered. A pair of servants trailed after him but he dismissed them with a wave, and they bowed quickly before vanishing down the hall.

"Get… anything?" Mitsuha cocked her head. In all of their written exchanges, Taki had never really spoken about his family's business.

"Hmm." Taki's father took over a seat, seeming to take that as a no. "I guess it isn't easy for you to find an in with those bean counters."

"Why would we…" Mitsuha stopped before she gave herself away. Taki and his father had probably had this conversation before. "I mean, what do they want now?"

"They've cut right to the chase and are asking for the manufactoria now." Lord Tachibana tapped his palm with the back of his other hand. "They demanded that the assemblies in the Chuyo district be switched to heavy weapons, and the Kita spire be put to making ammunition for some blasted offensive or other against the greenskins here."

Greenskins? Mitsuha's blood ran cold. There were greenskins on Ceadounus? And from what Taki's father was saying, the nobles were holding back in their support of the extermination.

Did Taki and Miki know about this?

"We… we should let them have them." She said shakily. "We should give them the manufactorums to do with as they want."

"I've told you before, that is not viable." Taki's father replied. "It is not fitting for a family of our station to be the first to yield to these demands. We would lose face before the other houses."

Mitsuha suddenly felt faint. Her body went numb, and a sensation of prickling pins began to crawl across her fingers. She recalled the contents of that meeting regarding the wedding. Even in the midst of a xenos invasion, sheltered in their cloud-topping spires, these socialites continued to play their games of implication and intrigue.

In one part of her mind however, Mitsuha noted that Taki had apparently pushed the same line of inquiry before. The revelation served to calm her.

"If not one, then what about two?" Mitsuha pressed. From what had been said at the marriage meeting, it seemed to her that the Okudera house was the second most influential on the planet. "What if y- we joined with the Okudera house to support the war effort. Do it with conviction."

Her hands balled into fists. "Set an example for the other houses rather than submit. Lead instead of surrender."

Mitsuha could see the gears turning in Lord Tachibana's head. He pushed up his glasses, and brushed a bit of hair from his face.

"That could work in our favor." He conceded with a nod. "But how do you propose we organize ourselves in such a manner?"

"I will arrange it." Mitsuha said. "I'm meeting with Miki Okudera later today. Give me this chance, and I'll tell her then, and we can coordinate to have both of our houses work together on this."

* * *

...

* * *

The chrono's alarm rang, echoing within the confines of the tiny room. Taki shot up, jolted from his blissful sleep. He reached out with a hand and fumbled about blindly for the device, finally managing to slam the shut-off button with his palm.

It was Mitsuha's alarm, that she had set for him in anticipation of a switch that could occur at any day. She had also placed her copy of the Imperial Creed on the dresser, with scraps of paper inserted into various section and a note stuck on top telling Taki to ' _Wake Up and Read!'_

Laying out the book beneath the room's sole lumen bulb, Taki made a face at the mirror. Helping him avoid embarrassment was all well and good, but did Mitsuha - a priest of all people - have to make it that clear that she didn't have any faith in him at all?

Taki estimated that he'd been reading for an hour or two before his attention was drawn to the sound of a knock, followed by Tessie's now-familiar voice coming from outside.

"Wake up this morning to a new you! Wake up and surprise yourself with the upcoming day! Or something like that. That's what you wanted me to say to you if you didn't come out on your own right?" Tessie said, his voice muffled slightly by the closed door.

Taki gritted his teeth, simultaneously stifling a laugh that would have come at his own expense. That damn Mitsuha was definitely making fun of him.

"I'm coming." Taki closed the book and put on Mitsuha's clothes. He'd probably spent enough time reading to make a passable impression. He opened the door for Tessie, and the gunnery sergeant looked him up and down.

"Hey, don't forget your Rosarius." Tessie said, making a gesture with his fingers that seemed to trace out the shape of a dangling necklace.

"My what?" Taki asked, trying to fish for answers.

Tessie tilted his head toward a box on top of Mitsuha's dresser. "You keep it in there don't you?"

Oh right, the box. Taki had never actually opened that, partly for a lack of time, and partly because it seemed like something that Mitsuha wanted to be kept private. He undid the latch and removed the solid metal amulet within. Its coutours felt familiar in Mitsuha's palm, as if her hands and fingertips were so used to holding and touching it that they had memorized its shape and weight.

The sight of the double-headed eagle tickled something in the back of Taki's mind. Didn't he have something like this too? He'd found it on the ground one day, a few years ago after some sort of altercation with a trespasser. He'd check when he got home.

Taki hooked the amulet onto a length of spare chain and placed it around his neck, then followed Tessie to the mess hall. They met up with Sayaka on the way, where Taki sucked down his breakfast as quickly as possible, the taste mostly fading to just a slop of salty blandness in his mouth. And in hindsight, that was all it had ever been. Of course, were Taki to sample some with his own body it would probably have gagged him despite his experiences, but Mitsuha's tongue was accustomed to this standard of fare.

Even though he was the one inhabiting her body, fragments of Mitsuha still remained.

"So today's gonna be one of those days huh?" Tessie said. He had in his hand something that looked like a long, curving fang, yellowed and carved on one end with a loop to hang a string through. He rolled it over his palm, feeling its contours with his fingers.

"Is that a tooth?" Taki said around a mouthful of food, leaning around to get a closer look.

"What? Oh, it's nothin'." Tessie said, shoving the fang into his pocket and twisting his body to block off Taki's view.

"Tessie you still haven't thrown that away?" Sayaka interjected from the other side. "You know you're not allowed to have that!"

"Oh, so it's from an alien?" Taki asked. "Where'd you get it?"

Taki almost wanted to snatch back his words when Tessie and Sayaka turned and gave him simultaneous looks. Right, Mitsuha was a priest, so she wasn't supposed to be interested in these things. Well whatever, trying to act exactly like her was impossible, and he'd given up on that a long time ago.

"Got it from a trader." Tessie said, taking the fang back out and drawing an exasperated sigh from Sayaka. "Came from an Ork, preserved or else it'll rot. Brought in from off-world."

Taki nodded. Alien goods were strictly prohibited under the Imperial Creed's doctrine of intolerance. However, the cold trade was difficult to stop, given the obvious impossibility of categorizing and inspecting every single object that could possibly have come from an alien. Even on his own world, there were more than a few prominent nobles who maintained secret stashes of bones, artefacts and curios, up to and including Planetary Governor Masuzoe himself. Taki himself didn't collect any of the things, but looking into whether his family's rivals had them was a regular activity back home.

"That reminds me, I almost wish those brats would come back again." Tessie shoved the carved fang back into a pouch. "Could use a laugh today."

Taki glanced at him, then looked down at his plate of food, then back up at Sayaka. He allowed a grin to split his face, causing Sayaka's eyes to widen fractionally in response as she nervously popped one of the biscuits she'd been saving into her mouth.

"Tessie, Sayaka, do you know which family the leader of that group belonged to? And do you still have the vid-capture?" Taki said.

Tessie and Sayaka exchanged a quick glance before Sayaka spoke up.

"The Tanaka family I think?" Sayaka said. "And I still have it. Why does that matter?"

Tanaka? The name seemed vaguely familiar to Taki somehow. Well it wasn't really important right now.

"Just hear me out." Taki said, standing up and stepping back so that he could address them both at once. "The power of the noble houses is always backed by the church. Always. They can have a little bit of wiggle room in private, but out in the open they always, always have to put up with the whole faithful act."

And he _would_ know about that. In addition to the outward displays of worshipful devotion that he knew how to perform by rote, Taki had taken part in Chance of Faith when he was younger, a practice done with every noble child on his world to keep the ties between church and state strong. As part of the practice, he'd been locked into the tomb of one of Ceadounus' founders, who was claimed by legend to have arrived in the system before he'd even left his home due to some vagaries of the Warp. When a follow-up fleet had come to check up on the planet's progress not more than a few decades later, many generations had already passed, with the original founding families diverging to produce some of the noble houses that still existed today.

After being let out in the morning, Taki had been asked if he'd had any dreams of the Emperor. An affirmative answer would have indicated that he was being called by the Emperor, and seen him sent off to be trained by the Church.

Taki did recall waking up to a few images of statues and empty eye-sockets shedding tears, but his father had hinted at the purpose of the test, and Taki had opted to feign ignorance in order to remain in his comfortable life.

"So we take the recording, and threaten to reveal it to that pontifex guy that I keep hearing about." Taki stamped a fist into his palm. "And then this Tanaka person will have to give up to some of our demands."

"T-that 'pontifex guy'?!" Sayaka stuttered, her eyes going wide. "Y-you can't be-"

"Let's do it!" Tessie cut her off by slamming a fist against the table. Then before Taki could reply, he added, "And then we can have him supply us with more explosives!"

"That's ri- wait, explosives?" Taki turned his head partway to make sure he was hearing this right. "I was more thinking we should use this to improve the food around here. What's so great about explosives?"

Tessie crossed his arms and shook his head repeatedly, as if Taki had just said the dumbest thing in the world.

"Explosions are the God-Emperor's gift to mankind!" He said, bringing his hands together and spreading his fingers in an imitation of an explosion. "There's no problem that can't be solved with an explosion at the right place and time!"

"Right, sure, we can do that." Taki nodded in agreement and took a half step back. At least Tessie wasn't difficult to convince.

"Wait a second, are you serious about this Tessie?" Sayaka shook him on the shoulder. "I didn't know you were this much of an idiot!"

"And Mitsuha!" She turned toward Taki. "What's gotten into you?"

"Hey, aren't you always the first to complain about our supply shortages?" Tessie tilted his head toward her. "This would make your job a whole lot easier too."

"And just how will we keep the consequences from coming back to us?" Sayaka crossed her arms.

"This guy supplies us, but the planetary governor is our imperial commander right?" Taki pointed up with a finger. "So an attack on us is an attack on the governor. And if we word our messages right, we could even make this look like the governor is the one making a play. Just leave this to me, I know just what to say."

Tessie laughed, holding out a closed fist for Taki to bump. "Never knew you and I saw eye-to-eye on this."

Taki grinned and reciprocated the gesture. But of course. Mitsuha was probably busy with Miki again, and Throne help Taki if he just sat by and allowed her to outdo him in his own life.

Sayaka sighed, going through her bag and pulling out the pict-recorder. "Alright fine, I'll give you the recording, but just don't get me involved in anything you two do alright?"

"And how do you even know all this stuff anyway?" She grumbled under her breath.

Tessie nodded in Taki's direction, completely ignoring Sayaka's griping as he took the recording device. "Now that that's out of the way, you're still pretty new here, and I don't figure you know all that many people yet."

He passed the recorder to Taki. "You handle the message, I'll set up delivery."

* * *

...

* * *

Mitsuha went to her scheduled meeting with Miki with a bit more urgency in her step than usual, finding herself the one waiting at the balcony for Miki rather than the other way around. The tingling sensation was growing stronger, and she couldn't keep herself from grasping and squeezing her hands together.

"Hey Taki! Sorry, did you wait long?" Miki stepped through the door, carrying her copy of the Imperial Creed. She paused, raising an eyebrow in response to Mitsuha's grave expression.

"Miss Okudera, did you know about the greenskins here?" Mitsuha asked.

"I knew." Miki nodded. "The greens have been here a while, and I think they've even managed to cause some production delays with some of our mining works. But they've never been a danger to us or to our spaceport up here."

"The greenskins are a race that thrives on warfare. They'll come for us eventually." Mitsuha said and buried her face in her hands. These nobles were naive, so sheltered and ignorant. She'd seen the reports, heard the firsthand testimonies of returning veterans who'd seen action in the frontier wars. They'd spoken of loss and horror, of green hordes stretching past the horizon, of towering, brutal monsters that could kill and kill and kill. Maybe this particular invasion had yet to grow to that scale, but one day it would if it wasn't put down soon.

She fixed Miki with a gaze. "We have to commit our houses to the defense. Strengthen the militia. Ta- er, my father says that we would lose face if we were the first to yield, and I assume the same is the case for you. But if we lead the effort together, we could pull the remaining houses behind us, win the war and consolidate our influence at a single stroke."

Miki cocked her head. "You know, I wonder. Hmmm."

"Is that a good 'hmmm' or a bad 'hmmm'?" Mitsuha asked.

"It means I'm wondering if this is providence that brought this on between us." Miki replied.

Mitsuha mulled over her own conclusion that the body switching was a miracle from the Emperor. Perhaps this was what she had been brought to Ceadounus for? The pieces seemed to fall into place, and the thought brought a smile to her face.

"I think so too." She replied.

"Now, talking about it is all well and good, but can you hold up your end if we're gonna go through with this?" Miki crossed her arms up over her chest and favored Mitsuha with a look. "I should be able to have our branches and associates marching with us in lockstep on this soon, but can you say the same for yours?"

Mitsuha felt a gulp of nervous saliva inch its way down her throat. She didn't know the first thing about the Tachibana family's 'associates' or whatever, or how these noble family-business conglomerates were even structured to begin with. But she had to try, for Taki and Miki and everyone on Ceadounus.

"I can do it." Mitsuha nodded. "Just wait for me."

The two of them parted without the usual discussion session, the thoughts of war looming large in their minds. Returning to Taki's manse, Mitsuha spent the rest of the day rushing to and fro, trying to wheedle what she could out of Taki's household staff without giving herself away.

The sky had faded to a midnight blue by the time Mitsuha trudged back to Taki's room. A whole day's worth of work had yielded her just a few scraps of information that were basically all but worthless since she couldn't piece them together. Given the way Taki's father had dismissed the servants earlier before talking business, he was probably keeping them in the dark on purpose.

More spire politics.

Mitsuha snatched up Taki's data-slate and powered it on. Something built up inside her, clamoring for release.

' _All of you stupid nobles,'_ she began, hammering at the device's keys to relieve the tension in her hands.

Spoiled. Naive. Sheltered. Cloistered in their cloud-topping spires, playing games of favor while an alien invasion was proceeding in the levels below, withholding supplies while others died to keep the green tide at bay.

' _What does the Imperium even mean to you people, save for the safety, comfort and profit that it's brought you?'_ Mitsuha finished, the words spilling from her lips at the same time as a hoarse whisper before she allowed her numb arms to drop.

When at last she regained some feeling, Mitsuha picked the slate back up and looked into Taki's reflection. One finger twined itself around a length of hair as she let out a breath, her anger draining away as her other hand moved to erase what she had written.

Mitsuha stopped herself. No, everything she said was true, and Taki was honest enough with himself to not hold it against her. Still, she was just as helpless in this situation, not knowing anything about the politicking and the connections that dominated the spires. Her fingertips clicked once more against the data-slate's keys.

' _Taki, you're in danger. And I need your help.'_

* * *

...

* * *

"Hand it over to Matsumoto if you're ready." Tessie instructed once the three of them reconvened in an empty part of the base. "Then he's set to give it to Nagano, and from there…"

By the time Tessie finished describing his setup, Taki's head was practically spinning from the delivery chain he'd given out. At one point the parade of middle-men even snaked into another regiment entirely, and out of the militia altogether before delivering the message to six of the Tanaka family's branches within the area. With this many links, there was no way the origin would be traced back to them, though it also seemed to introduce a lot of points of potential failure.

"Wow, is this for real?" Taki asked, drawing a proud nod from Tessie in response. "Where'd you even learn to do this stuff, Tessie? And isn't this way too many steps?"

Tessie rubbed his hands together and gave off a low, creepy laugh. "Hey, these are people who I trust, who I've worked with before. I know you're a priest and all, but even you've passed around a stick or two after a hard day. Where'd you think we get them?"

"Down in the underhive where I grew up, you've gotta have layers between yourself and whatever it is you do. Same deal here." He added, giving Taki another nod.

Sayaka sighed and shook her head. "Well, it does seem like you two have thought all this out, but just for the last time, are you sure we want to do this?"

"Hey now, what's with this 'we' stuff?" Taki turned to her. "I thought you didn't want us to get you involved in it?"

"Well I mean, after I thought about it, I realized anything you guys do will probably get pinned on me anyway." Sayaka made a face. "So I guess I might as well hear you guys out and make sure you aren't doing anything too idiotic."

"Let's do it then!" Taki and Tessie said simultaneously. A moment of silence followed, before Taki burst into laughter. He stopped himself at the sound of a shouted voice coming from the edge of the base.

"Make way! Make way at once!"

The voice was breathy, almost straining for air. Taki leaned out a nearby window to look, and saw an old man practically sealed into a set of thick ecclesiastical robes, with a bejeweled cape held up by a pair of shaven-headed acolytes. He didn't manage more than a glimpse before he was suddenly grabbed and pushed down out of sight by Sayaka.

"What's the big deal?" Taki whispered to her. He looked to Tessie, but stopped as he noticed the gunnery sergeant's expression had also turned serious.

"Quiet. Today's one of _those_ days, so we'll want to keep you and the pontifex as far away as possible." Tessie raised a finger to his lips.

Tessie's statement was reinforced as the pontifex called out again.

"Where's Mitsuha?" He interrogated a nearby soldier, his multiple chins wobbling from the effort. "Why are the prayers not being conducted? Bring her out this instant!"

Right, Taki had had an encounter before with this flabby old man, and he had gotten himself quite the dressing down then. Sweat poured from the backs of his knees; apparently that was where Mitsuha sweated whenever she got really nervous.

"I'll distract him." Sayaka stood up and indicated an escape route with a gesture of a hand. "You two get yourselves away, and go about your business."

And with that she was out, making her way toward the pontifex with her head bowed and hands clasped together.

"Please have sympathy, your Holiness." She pleaded, circling around the pontifex and drawing his gaze away from where Taki was. "Our unit has had a spate of vehicle malfunctions lately, and Mitsuha is presently occupied performing rites for the injured. But, while you're here, perhaps we could receive some blessings from your most eminent self to ensure that the Light of all Mankind continues to watch over us?"

"Come on." Tessie ushered Taki out the furthest door, then made his way out after him. Glancing back for a moment, the gunnery sergeant made sure to position himself exactly between Taki and the pontifex, blocking the view with his body.

Pontifex Cordatus was eventually persuaded to leave without seeing anything out of the ordinary, retreating to his upper-level home as his aging constitution gave out on him. The missives were sent and the remainder of the day passed entirely uneventfully, and Taki returned to Mitsuha's room with a spring in his step. He didn't even bother to take off her heavy robes before flipping open her journal to the page he'd started writing on.

' _You wouldn't believe who came down today.'_ Taki wrote. ' _Don't get mad at me for saying this, but that old pontifex guy that you work for is a complete ass. Why don't you guys put him on the front lines? I bet his robes have enough jewels in them to block bolter fire.'_

Taki paused to take a breath, closing his eyes for a moment before resuming his writing.

' _Sayaka had to bail me out, but at least you won't get in trouble with him tomorrow._ _Also did a little something with Tessie. So if the food around here gets better, feel free to thank me for taking control of your life.'_

Taki felt something warm take root in his chest as he lifted his pen from the paper. Tessie and Sayaka really were people that he could trust. Such unconditional friendship - even if it was really aimed at Mitsuha - was refreshing compared to the feints and masks of the upper spire, like imported cometary water compared to the stale recycled stuff that they had down here in the lower hive.

Then again, Mitsuha had been able to form something of a friendship with Miki Okudera hadn't she? Taki chuckled to himself. Mitsuha really was selling herself short. And maybe it was Taki himself who had always failed to return the extended hand.

Taki's bishop had always insisted that faith was its own reward, but here was proof wasn't it? Still, talking to him about it didn't seem like it would be particularly productive. Taki had projected a false demeanor to him for so long that it shamed him a little to come out now, plus the bishop himself also seemed to enjoy the upper spire life a bit too much for Taki to believe in his utmost sincerity. He wasn't like Mitsuha at all, and Taki wasn't looking to trade down. He put his pen to paper.

' _Oh yeah Mitsuha, just wanted to know but, where do you go to pray?'_ He wrote.

' _Anyway, talk to you later then.'_

Taki stood up and closed the journal, then immediately re-opened it to scribble out his last sentence. His hand gripped the pen, then released it. What was the point? Mitsuha would see it anyway, and probably pester him about it afterwards asking him what he'd originally wrote.

Taki closed the booklet, yawning as he undressed, then slid into Mitsuha's bedroll and slept.


	6. Revelation

**Chapter 6: Revelation**

* * *

...

* * *

Taki woke up, dressed himself, and left his manse before the sun had even fully risen. He returned to his room in the afternoon, picking up his data-slate and brushing aside the drapes around his bed. He sat down to write, frowning slightly at the sight of his own reflection staring back from the device's screen.

' _Mitsuha, I'm leaving this for you so you can go over it while you're here. I've gone and talked to the heads of the second and third branches.'_ Taki wrote. ' _They were a little bit of trouble to deal with, probably more than you could handle, but that should be enough to get most of our suppliers on-side with us.'_

With us. That had just come out.

Taki felt a spike of internal resistance as he brought pressed his fingers against the data-slate's keys again. A lifetime of instruction warned against what he was doing now. He was revealing family secrets, secrets that could be used against the Tachibana house.

Instead, Taki flipped the data-slate's display to Mitsuha's previous entry. Reading through it still stung him a little, but she was right to say those things. It was people like Mitsuha, Tessie and Sayaka who fought and died while the great houses continued to wine and dine. Taki had been born into nobility, but noble actions were a different matter altogether.

Taki's reluctance melted away, and he resumed his writing. He tapped on the slate's keys, laying bare the tangled web of connections that kept his house in power, a network that even extended through branches and Chartists and Rogue Traders to other systems entirely. Mitsuha was coming from another world out in who knew where, but she was still doing all of this for him.

Taki paused at the sound of a quiet knocking on his door. He called out for the visitor to enter, and heard the creak of the door being opened.

Taki looked up. It was his leading maid. She was petite, with black hair cropped short, probably not more than a few years older than he was. Nonetheless, her diligence and attentiveness had seen her promoted to a relatively high position among the staff.

"Young master, would you like assistance in changing into something more comfortable?" She asked with her head held low.

"No thanks. Wouldn't want to trouble you over nothing." Taki replied. He glanced back down and flipped his slate's display to Mitsuha's description of her last meeting with Miki.

"It is no trouble, young master." The maid replied, bowing her head. "And I apologize for the disturbance."

"Wait." Taki said as the maid turned to leave. Something solidified within him then, some resolve or realization.

"Could you tell me something about yourself? Do you have any dreams or…?" He trailed off.

The maid's reply was as automatic as a fruit falling under the force of gravity. "To serve the Tachibana Family as best I can."

Taki chuckled. He knew a mask when he saw one.

"Come on, that really can't be it." Taki said. "There has to be something more than that, right? You can tell me."

The woman blinked at Taki's response. She took a gulp. Taki could almost see the wheels turning in her head as she mustered up the courage to speak.

"I was raised here in the Primaris Hive… and I hope to own a garden one day, underneath the open sky." She said, then bowed her head again. "But I understand that such things are impossible. Please forgive my foolish words, young master."

Taki took a long breath, the exhalation coming out as a vague sound of approval. So it was just like Mitsuha then.

"You know the next planet out has a pretty decent climate." Taki nodded. "We'll buy a plot of land, give you the deed, and arrange to have you transferred there after you retire. Have something to look forward to."

He smiled. "How does that sound?"

The maid recoiled as if struck. Her lower lip quivered. She nodded slightly, almost imperceptibly.

"Then… thank you." She said, giving one last reverential bow before letting herself out.

Taki's eye was drawn to a blinking indicator on the data-slate's screen. It was a message from Miki, telling Taki that she was heading out to their usual meeting place to get an update on his progress. Right, she was involved in this too.

Taki dipped into his closet, changing into a less formal set of clothing, then stooped down in front of the casket that he kept in one corner.

Taki opened the box, and removed the amulet within from the velvet cushion that it rested on. It was heavy, probably incorporating adamantium into its construction. A braided red cord was strung through a loop above its twin eagle heads. The cord had been broken along its length, its strands partially unraveled and frayed.

What was this thing and why did he have one? Tessie had had a name for it, but Taki hadn't been paying attention and the details had already seeped out of his memory.

Taki stood up and finished dressing himself. He could ask someone about it next time they switched.

"Taki, are you going out?" His father asked as Taki passed him in the hall.

"Yeah, I'm going to see Miki Okudera." Taki replied.

"Well I'm glad to see the two of you are getting along." Taiga nodded. "And I've received communications from the second and third branches that you went to speak with them this morning. It's good to see you taking more of an interest in the family business now."

"Some day, all of this will be yours you know."

Taki replied with his own nod, then left his father behind. As he left the bounds of his family's estate, a pair of carapace-armored guards took up their places behind him, trailing him in lockstep until he passed through the glistening gates of the hive's courthouse. He climbed up the spiraling staircase to the open-sky balcony, where Miki was waiting for him as she did for her regular meetings with Mitsuha.

"So, how are things going on your end?" Miki holding her hand out for Taki to speak as she leaned her back against the balcony railing.

"They're going alright." Taki shrugged. "The Feast is coming up, and I want to get this done before then. I should have things set up in about a week standard."

"Good!" Miki smiled. "Because you didn't actually seem too sure when you first brought this up. Should we call for a meeting of our households in that time then?"

Taki frowned. Mitsuha was still better at getting along with Miki than he was. It would probably be better to let her handle it.

"Have them be ready then, but best stretch it across two or three days where we can confirm on the day of." Taki said. He nodded. That should be enough leeway to ensure that a switch occurred.

The sun was beginning to set, and Miki leaned into it, turning so that her face was shadowed by the light behind her.

"Do you remember how we used to fight?" Miki said. She wagged a finger in his direction. "And don't bother telling me that you weren't a part of it. You know right and well what you were trying to do."

"Yeah okay, fine." Taki replied and crossed his arms. Where was she going with this?

"It seems like something from a long ago doesn't it?" Miki said, reaching into her pouch and pulling out a lho-stick, before pausing and inserting it back in.

"You've changed." She leaned forward, exposing her face once more.

Taki made a noise of agreement in his throat. Just from the fact that he was engaging in a civil conversation with her, he had to admit that he had. What would the Taki from two months ago have thought if he could've seen himself now?

"But it hasn't even been two months has it since the meeting that day." Miki continued, completing the thought for him. "And people don't change that fast, not when nothing around them changes. So what gives?"

Taki stood stiff and held his ground, blowing away a bit of hair that had gotten too close to his eyes. He said nothing, merely stared at the reflection of himself in Miki's eyes as she pried him open with her gaze. At last she straightened up, and stood back against the railing.

"There's someone else isn't there?" Miki said, cocking her head in his direction.

What?! Taki twitched and felt a surge heat go to his cheeks. Drops of sweat rolled down his forehead. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it when he could find nothing.

Taki's reaction seemed to egg Miki on, and she leaned forward again, thrusting her face into his.

"Someone's changed you. Don't deny it." She said, her lips curling up into a smirk. Taki opened his mouth to voice a denial anyway, but she cut him off with a raised finger.

"Cherish and be thankful for this Taki, because these things don't happen too often in life."

Drawing her face back from a stunned Taki, Miki walked past him and waved back with a hand. She vanished back into the spire, leaving Taki to gaze out at the setting sun.

Someone else? Taki felt a throbbing in his chest. He shook his head and chuckled to himself. Miki didn't know the half of it. Becoming Mitsuha, sharing experiences with her and talking with her through that? How ridiculous would it have sounded if he'd said that out loud?

Taki returned to his room. He undressed and bathed, his tensed up body relaxing as he got closer and closer to bed.

Taki slid into his bed. He and Mitsuha would probably switch again tomorrow or the day after that. There were so many things that he still wanted to do in the lower hive.

* * *

...

* * *

Mitsuha woke with her lips curled into a smile. Taki understood. He understood and he was doing everything he could to support her efforts.

They had just switched again yesterday, where Mitsuha had read the instructions that Taki had left for her. The atmosphere in Taki's household had been different. No longer did his servants trail her every step, waiting to tend to her every need before she'd even verbalized them.

Mitsuha took in a deep breath. The next time they exchanged bodies, it would be up to her to finish what she'd started.

Mitsuha rose and put on her Ministorum robes and equipment, then took her Rosarius from its box and hung it from her neck. From the way the box had been moved, it seemed Taki had started wearing it as well. Apparently though, he hadn't found where she kept her red cord, since he seemed to favor the use of one of her spare chains. Maybe the next time they switched, she'd tell him about it.

Mitsuha arrived at the unit's mess hall, finding it to be a lot louder than it usually was. A crowd of soldiers was gathered in front of the serving area, and Mitsuha tried to look over their shoulders to see what was the big deal. No success. Mitsuha wasn't the shortest person in the company, but she was definitely well within the lower half.

"Would you look at this! It actually worked!" Tessie called from behind Mitsuha. Mitsuha scowled. Well she was glad _somebody_ could see.

A couple of heads turned to look at Tessie, and he glared back at them until they looked away.

"Right, forgot I was supposed to keep this just between us." Tessie nodded at Mitsuha. Mitsuha raised an eyebrow at that, but decided to say nothing.

Eventually the crowd dispersed, and Mitsuha and Tessie got into line. Mitsuha gasped as she saw what was on the menu. Real bread! Dried meat that didn't just look like vaguely meat-colored jelly! There was even some soup that they could use to flavor the synth-paste and starch.

"Tessie, what did you guys do?" Mitsuha rounded on him. Taki had written something about food getting better in her journal, but he'd played coy and didn't specify the cause.

"What? Who?" Tessie looked confused.

Oops. Right, Taki had been in her body when he had done the deed. "Uh, I mean me!"

"Right, let's find somewhere to sit first, and then you can explain some more." Tessie shook his head.

They sat down in a corner where Mitsuha tried some of the soup first, mixing the synth-paste into it to thicken the liquid. Yum!

Mitsuha looked up, searching for Sayaka, then turning to Tessie when a glance around the mess hall wasn't able to locate her.

"So where's Saya?" She asked.

For some reason that query caused a grin to split Tessie's face.

"Hurry up and eat then." He gestured at Mitsuha's plate. "We need to pay her a visit."

They finished their meal and made their way to the armory, which was, if anything, even louder and more crowded than the mess hall had been. Beyond the clamor of voices, Mitsuha could just barely hear Sayaka repeatedly calling for "one at a time!"

"Squad six, with me!" Tessie called out, cutting through the wall of soldiers as his selected group filed in behind him. Mitsuha couldn't quite hear his conversation with Sayaka, but when the group came away each one was armed with a tubular grenade launcher. Where did they get those? Just the week before, they'd barely had enough of them to assign one to each platoon, and now there was enough to give to whole squads?

Others filed in after them, exchanging their stubbers and magazines for lasguns and power packs, the same lasguns and powerpacks that had been in perpetually short supply not one month before.

"Alright soldiers, it's time for live-fire training!" Tessie turned and addressed his squad. "There's a performance review coming up soon, and we've gotta make up for lost time if we're to make the cut for the Guard."

"Don't get too eager about it!" Sayaka called after them from her booth, making a disgusted face as they went off. "It'll be back to bricks and starch at meal-time if we end up getting deployed."

"Oh, Mitsuha!" Sayaka waved and beckoned her over. "Wait right there, I have something just for you."

Mitsuha wasn't sure what to expect until Sayaka returned, carrying large, blunt-nosed object with a ribbed back and flaring side-vents.

"Wait, isn't that…" Mitsuha said with a quivering voice, matched by the trembling of her extended finger.

"That's right! Plasma." Sayaka nodded. "Real piece of work isn't it? Sent down from upstairs after… that thing we did. I wouldn't take it to the range today if I were you though. The walls around here are cracked enough without this thing blowing holes in them."

"Now I just need you to fill out these forms…" Sayaka pulled out a stack of papers. "And make sure you go over these instructions from the cogheads on how to attach and remove the hydrogen flasks safely and- hey!" Sayaka waved a hand. "Throne to Mitsuha! Are you even listening to me?"

"Huh?" Mitsuha looked up from where she'd been rubbing her cheek against the plasma gun's reactor chamber. Her face grew hot at the sound of a couple of chuckles coming from the surrounding soldiers.

"Oh r-right, sorry."

The day's remaining duties passed quickly, and Mitsuha returned to her room. She sat down in front of her dresser, opened her journal to Taki's second-to-last entry, and smiled at his description of Pontifex Cordatus before flipping it to his final log.

From the details that Taki had left for her on his data-slate and in her journal, their next switch was going to be the big one. There, Mitsuha and Miki would bind their two families to the ongoing war effort, and hopefully the show of unanimity between the two largest conglomerates would be enough to drag the remaining noble houses behind them.

Miki's warm, pleasant smile appeared in Mitsuha's mind. Just how was it that Taki had ever been so hostile with her?

Inevitable conflict was how. They'd been set on rails heading for a collision course. And here was the beginning of a better way.

Taki hadn't been idle either. Mitsuha wasn't sure exactly what he and Tessie had done, but it must have been something involving whatever nobles were in charge of this district of the hive. The unit was being furnished with adequate equipment, their food was finally better than field rations, and there was a good chance they could make it to the next Imperial Guard tithe.

Something fell onto the journal, staining the paper. Mitsuha raised a finger to her cheek. It came away warm and wet. She stared at her fingertip, where a droplet sat quivering, glistening in the soft, dim light.

Mitsuha glanced at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes burned and her vision blurred, but even through the haze she could see the tears flowing.

"Wh-what am I… Why am I…?"

If she departed her world, would she be able to switch with Taki again? If they traveled through the Warp, would that spell the end of her exchanges with him? And if she were deployed into active combat, wouldn't it be too dangerous for him to switch in?

Mitsuha wiped her eyes dry with a palm, then stared into her reflection. And was her dedication to the Emperor really that shallow? To give her life for the Throne should have been the loftiest of aspirations. And yet, here she was, letting her personal desires pollute her devotion again.

Mitsuha rose and bathed herself using some collected water. Had Taki been here to hear her thoughts, he probably would've replied with some pithy remark.

"You don't need to go that far. Who even says stuff like that." He might have joked.

"And just what would you know, living up in the spire?" She would have teased back at him.

Mitsuha laid down to sleep, and closed her eyes. At least when she was living Taki's life, she could be certain what the right thing to do was.

* * *

...

* * *

The meeting of the two great houses was commenced at high noon. The sun rose to the summit of its arc, shining its light through a dome of synthetic diamond that channeled its rays into a dazzling display of crystalline radiance. Every wall gleamed like polished silver, dripping with sculptures and architectural adornments.

Rows of seats were arrayed around a central, eagle-headed lectern, packed with nobles arranged according to rank and position. Some fidgeted in their places, or whispered to one another. A separate section had been reserved for a handful of blue-robed adepts from the Administratum, whose Munitorum branch was greatly concerned with the outcome of the meeting.

Mitsuha sat near the front of the Tachibana family section, wearing the clothing that had been laid out for her by Taki the day before. A scarlet sash cut across her chest, denoting Taki's status as the house's heir apparent. She looked across the courtroom at Miki, who gleamed like the gilded statuary that loomed overhead.

There was a moment of silence as blessing of the Emperor was invoked by a preacher. Mitsuha whispered along until the prayer came to an end. Once it was over, the court's speaker took to the podium, his decrepit body as much machine as it was man.

"If anyone wishes to take the floor, they will step to the podium." He announced, his bionic eyes sweeping the courtroom.

That was her cue.

"I will take to the floor." Mitsuha stood up. She proceeded toward the podium, her gait stiff and dignified, her steps measured.

"I will go as well." Miki rose at the same time, arriving at the same time as Mitsuha.

There were a couple of soft gasps, and a round of exchanged looks. Just as they had planned.

"Fellow members of the house, and associates thereof," Mitsuha began, Taki's voice- her voice magnified and projected across the room by a vox embedded in the lectern. "Our world faces something that many of us have only ever seen on propaganda-vids, or read about in archives."

"And though it may seem distant, up here in our spires that rise above the clouds, the threat is real and growing." Miki picked up, like two performers taking turns, singing in harmony.

"We are leaders, and we must act as such." She said. "For it is none other than us that both common and high-born will look to for example."

"The foundries under the direct control of the Tachibana head branch are being re-tooled as we speak toward the manufacture of military equipment." Mitsuha followed. "They will be given first priority when determining distributions from our warehouses."

"The quarries owned by the Okudera house have already adjusted operations." Miki stepped in. "And our vanadium, manganese and palladium mines have already begun delivery toward the Tachibana Group's ammunition plants. Our adamantium refineries are being modified as well for military blends, and we are notifying our chartist distributors to expect shortfalls until this conflict comes to an end."

"The militia is fighting to protect us, and has fought alone for so very long. We must now do our part to guarantee the potency of their efforts." Mitsuha told the assembled nobles.

"Trust in our protectors. Let your faith be as mine, and it shall surely be rewarded." She concluded.

"We now offer the floor to any other members who wish to speak." Miki said, and the two of them shared a look before returning to their respective places.

The procession that followed was unanimous in its verdict. Some were more reluctant than others, but Taki and Miki had done their preparation work, ensuring that the first speakers to follow had already been brought on-side. The show of unity between the household heirs combined with the illusion of consensus, compelling the remainder to agree. Some even made shows of ordering their properties to switch priorities on the spot, which was a nice touch. There was less than a week left until the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, and getting some tangible results before then would probably produce a notable morale boost.

The Administratum adepts were the last to rise. They accepted the offered production, then muttered amongst themselves, seemingly surprised at the outcome of the conference. Mitsuha had been informed by Taki that such things had been called before, always without any significant commitments made.

' _I think I might've just saved your world. You'd better be grateful!'_ Mitsuha wrote into the slate once she'd returned to Taki's room. Outside, the sun was beginning to set, casting a patchwork of violet shadows across the sea of clouds.

Mitsuha sighed, her triumph melting away into a sort of melancholy. The day's switch was almost over.

Mitsuha touched her hand to the data-slate's keys. She hadn't told Taki yet about the possibility of being transferred to the Guard. He was the one who had made it possible of course, but he couldn't have known.

Mitsuha's finger recoiled from the slate as if pricked by a needle. There was a heaviness in her chest. She lowered her hand again, typing out something else instead.

' _Let's do our best from now!'_

* * *

...

* * *

Finally Taki had found some time. Mitsuha was the company preacher after all, and with less than a week left until the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, Taki was so harried that he could barely even get his thoughts together. Mitsuha's shrine was really far away from her unit's station, and during the previous switch Taki had been unable to carve out a long enough stretch of time to make the trip. But then, that also meant that it would be good.

' _Right at the cloud layer, level seven hundred thirty two, at juncture thirteen above zona commercia,'_ was what Mitsuha had written.

It wasn't as easy as it sounded. The available lifts were so scattered that Taki would've gotten lost between them for sure, and while Mitsuha was a lot fitter than he was from a life in the militia, Taki could still feel his legs burning from the climb. He breathed a sigh of relief when the architecture began to change, signifying his entry into the bounds of the upper hive.

Even on the right level, Taki had to ask for directions twice before he found the chapel, which was little more than a tiny, plain alcove tucked in between two estates. He started to chuckle. Yep, that was just like Mitsuha.

Taki took one step inside, but a quick glance around confirmed the shrine to be empty, save for the statue of the Emperor looking out from one wall. According to Mitsuha, there was supposed to be an old abbess here who knew a lot about all kinds of things, but it looked like she was out.

Taki almost withdrew before he stopped himself. Even he knew that it was disrespectful to leave after setting foot in a chapel without stopping to say a prayer first. He knelt down before the statue, spread his priestly robes before his legs, then clasped his hands around Mitsuha's amulet and closed his eyes to pray.

Before more than a handful of words had departed his lips, Taki saw light. The chapel was only illuminated by a single lumen bulb, so Taki squeezed his eyes tighter to shut it out.

The light did not dim. Sensation melted away. The pressure of the stone floor on his knees. The feeling in his eyelids. The sound of his breathing and the crisp, clean smell of the filtered upper-hive air all faded into the distance like a dreamy languor.

A new sound entered Taki's ears, like a solitary voice, building and gathering until it grew to an angelic choir. The light brightened into a silvery glare, backlighting the statue of the Emperor. Droplets of glistening liquid collected on the corners of the sculpture's eyes.

Taki just stared, or sensed, or perceived the apparition somehow. Was this a vision, or something else? He reached out with a weightless hand, extending a finger to lift off one of the droplets.

The light dimmed, and the statue faded into darkness. Taki's breath caught. Feeling returned to his knees, his hands and his lungs.

He opened his eyes. He was back in the chapel again.

"Were you able to see something, Mitsuha?" An elderly woman's voice said from behind him.

Taki turned. There was an old woman behind him dressed in a plain brown robe and mantle. She paused, inserting something into her cloak that Taki couldn't quite see, then patted it to smooth it over before strolling over to Taki's front. Despite her age-curled back, the abbess was a surprisingly speedy walker, despite making use of no assists.

"Well, this might sound a little unbelievable." Taki began. "But I think I saw the statue crying tears?"

Taki stared at the statue again, trying to make out any hint of the glistening liquid from his vision. The stone was dry. There was nothing.

"The Tears of the Emperor." The abbess nodded slowly, seemingly not at all put off by Taki's unbelievable claim. She stretched her legs a bit, then lowered herself down to a seated posture on floor in front of Taki.

"I know it's a long way from where you are stationed, so while you are here, would you like to hear the story behind them?"

Taki found himself nodding along. This was what he had come for right?

The abbess returned his nod and smiled indulgently. She took a deep breath, and her face lit up.

"The Emperor sheds a tear for everyone of his own that falls in battle, and it is up to us in the Ministorum to collect them and put them to the best use. It is said that a single drop can heal any wound, cure any ailment, even banish the impure and grant the petitioner miracles."

"But the Emperor does not look highly upon self-pity." The abbess shook her head, then gave Taki a wink.

"Now not many people know about this next part, and you probably won't want to speak of it with just anyone. Do you understand?"

Taki made a noise of agreement in his throat, garnering another nod and a resumption from the old woman.

"Once there was an Ecclesiarch, one of the first to sit on the High Council so long ago. He was wracked with illness, and all around were convinced that his time had come, that he had served the Divine Emperor as his mortal representative for as long as He had willed it."

"But he could not accept that this was the Emperor's will. And so, he requested a tear for his own use, though the Ecclesiarch should only have the authority to ask on behalf of another, not for himself. And when it was delivered to him and he poured it onto his tongue, do you know what happened?" The abbess fixed Taki with a look.

"He was cured?" Taki said. After all, this was the Emperor's mortal representative they were talking about. No other possibility came to mind.

The abbess nodded in understanding, then shook her head slowly.

"He died." She said, her voice suddenly tinged with bleak finality.

"Huh?" was all that Taki could blurt out. He blinked, then blinked again.

"The Ecclesiarch died? Just like that?" He said. "Does that mean that the tears don't really work?"

"Well he didn't die quite so peacefully, but that is a story for another time." The abbess hushed him with a raised finger. She rose to a kneeling posture, and leaned forward for emphasis.

"Always remember my child, the Emperor helps those who help themselves." She said.

Taki nodded. He still wasn't quite making the full connection here, but this was probably something important. The Emperor helps those who help themselves. He needed to remember this once he woke up.

"Ah!" Taki raised a hand. "Is this related to the saying that it's 'better to give your life for the Emperor than to live for yourself?'"

It was a platitude often expressed by the confessors of the upper spire, repeated and repeated again at every prayer and gathering. Though given how eagerly they indulged in the luxuries of wealthy life, it was doubtful whether they really believed it either.

"Let me ask you something in return." The old woman replied with a wry smile. "If the Emperor is the protector of all humanity, then to give up everything for the Emperor is to do the same for humanity, yes?"

"Yes." Taki replied.

"Now, try to connect to all of humankind with your emotions." She gestured with a hand. "Go on, try it and tell me how you do."

Taki obliged and closed his eyes, and tried to picture 'humankind' in his mind. His mind dredged up images of faceless masses, of teeming crowds, of himself buried amongst untold billions.

"I… can't do it." He said at last, then looked up at the abbess. "Is that bad?"

The old woman shook her head.

"Only the benevolence of the Divine Emperor is sufficient to encompass all of humankind. We, His mortal servants, must make do with fighting for what is in front of us, protecting something precious to us in particular. This is what keeps us going when the going looks bleak, when hope seems too distant to see."

"Even the Adeptus Astartes, His Angels, are not so perfect." She said. "They fight for the Emperor yes, but also for their brothers, for their traditions, for their chapters and their protectorates."

Taki nodded, causing the chain around his neck to clink against its amulet. He held it up with a hand. Its edges were cool, but its center was warm from the heat of some internal process.

"Ah, your Rosarius." The abbess nodded and laughed. "Well it's good to see that at least the church can be counted on to furnish you with the essentials. Treasure it, safeguard it, and some day this Soul's Armor may safeguard your spirit from passing before its time."

Taki allowed the amulet to hang down once more, and stood up from the floor. So this thing was safeguarding Mitsuha's soul. And he had one back at home too.

He smiled and let out a slow breath. This was why Mitsuha came to this chapel, even though it was so far away. This old woman really knew a lot.

"Abbess, how do you know so much?" Taki said.

The other woman stood up as well, and turned slightly away. "Well, let's just say that I've been around a lot and seen many things. But no need to worry about me now, I'm retired."

"Now if you'll excuse me." She started to walk away. "I believe I have some business matters to attend to. Those men from the Tachibana Conglomerate have come up with another offer to rebuild this place. And it's going to be up to me again to shove them off."

Taki twitched. Wait. What? The Tachibana Conglomerate was here?

"Is something the matter, young lady?" The abbess turned, noticing Taki's surprise.

"Sorry, just one more question." Taki said. "Could you tell me the name of the planetary governor… uh, again?"

"Lord Masuzoe of course." The old woman replied automatically.

Taki stumbled. His vision spun, and his head was like a fuzz of cotton wool.

"Then, what does Ceadounus…?"

"Ah, that's just what the Chartists call this world, and it's a name that also sees use in the upper spire where the interstellar trade occurs." The abbess nodded. "Now, that was two questions, wasn't it?"

Taki apologized again and watched her go. His heart drummed against his ribs. His breaths were quick and shallow. His arms and legs strobed with energy, practically itching to get back down to the company and tell Mitsuha about his discovery.


	7. On That Day

**Chapter 7: On That Day**

* * *

...

* * *

Taki's fingers trembled as he sat down to write. He had to keep himself from tearing the pages by accident while he opened Mitsuha's journal. His pen hand quivered as he pressed the tip to paper, and he gripped it with his free hand to keep it steady.

He and Mitsuha were on the same world.

Taki took a deep breath, dispelling some of the heat that was pumping through his head. After returning from Mitsuha's chapel, there was something else he needed to say before anything else.

' _Mitsuha, the other day, the reason I asked you if there was anything after we died was…'_ Taki began, writing down the details of his meeting with the soldier whose brother had died and whose name he was slightly ashamed to admit he still couldn't remember. His memories of the incident were a bit faded, but it didn't really matter if what he wrote was a little incoherent.

' _So, you should probably go talk to him once you get back. Just you know, trying to help you do your job around here.'_

Taki bit down on a chunk of grox-meat jerky that he'd brought back from the mess hall. It wasn't exactly high class fare, but everything tasted better whenever he was in Mitsuha's body. He took a sip from a cup of water, now filtered, without the bitter after-taste left by the purification tablets they'd been using before.

' _Anyway, I went up to your chapel today. That old lady really knows a lot, and I might have also seen a vision or something while I was there. Not bad for my first time, right?'_

Taki felt the tightness in his limbs melt away. Maybe he was just tired from the climb to and from Mitsuha's chapel. Maybe the body could only hold that level of tension for so long. Or maybe, maybe it was because there was some sense of gratification or fulfillment that was now within his grasp, something that he hadn't even realized he wanted until now. It was like returning home after being away for a very long time.

' _Also before I go, your abbess said that the governor of Kaedun is Lord Masuzoe. She also said that the names we've been calling this planet are just two different names for the same place after all.'_

Strength flooded back into Taki's fingers as he wrote his way toward the inevitable conclusion.

' _I know you're busy now and all with the festival coming up, but it looks like you're getting a break the day before Sanguinala. Since we're both in the Primaris Hive, why don't you come up then? I'll tell the guards to stay out of your way.'_

* * *

...

* * *

Mitsuha woke and sat up in her bedroll, rubbing her eyes to clear away the haze of sleep. She rose and went to open her journal, opening it to Taki's final entry. She covered her mouth with a hand as her breath caught for a moment, before it escaped as a soft gasp that turned into a chuckle.

Mitsuha left her room, meeting up with Sayaka and Tessie for breakfast, then broke with them early once she'd finished her meal. The soldier that Taki had mentioned in his log was definitely Private Hideo Shimada, and Mitsuha found him at the target range, practicing with the unit's newly supplied lasguns.

"Y-your grace!" He stammered as he noticed Mitsuha approaching, his face shifting through a cascade of emotions.

"Peace." Mitsuha raised her hands in a placating gesture. "Would you like to go somewhere where others won't hear? So that we can talk about your spiritual health."

The two of them made their way to an empty lot, where they sat down and Mitsuha listened to the man's account of his visions.

"I haven't been sleeping well because of these visions." Hideo admitted, his face downcast. "I kind of wish I could just forget about it."

Mitsuha held his gaze. "I would like nothing more than for your mind to be at ease, but forgetting what you saw completely would be a mistake. You are seeing something that so many others hope desperately to see. You have seen proof of something that exists beyond death. Does that bring you no relief?"

Hideo looked ambivalent, so Mitsuha unhooked the leather-bound copy of the Imperial Creed from her belt and flipped it open. She didn't actually need to review any of its prayers of course, but the mere act of opening the hefty tome lent her a certain air of dignity and formality. Hideo's face lit up.

"I don't doubt that your brother's soul has already gone to be with the Emperor, but perhaps it would gladden him to know that he is still being thought of. Would it comfort you to say a prayer for your brother together?" Mitsuha asked, receiving a nod in return. "Alright, then if you would just repeat after me."

Once the prayer was finished Hideo returned to his drills. Mitsuha felt a flare of warmth in her chest as she watched him go, standing a little straighter and taller than before. Taki had shown her this, if only by his incurable ineptitude. She was needed. She was relied on.

Thoughts of Taki tickled something in the back of Mitsuha's mind. Something dug its way out from the bottom of her memory. A jolt of adrenaline coursed through her veins, and she shot up from her seat.

The Orks! If Taki's world was under attack by greenskins, and they were on the same planet, then weren't they in danger too?

"Tessie!" Mitsuha yelled and ran toward the gunnery sergeant as she found him supervising a bout of grenade throwing practice. Tessie opened his mouth to object to the use of his nickname in front of his unit, then closed it as he noticed Mitsuha's expression.

"Have you heard anything about the greenskins?" Mitsuha asked.

Tessie stroked his chin with a hand as he rummaged through his pack with another, pulling out a long, curved fang that was carved on one end.

"Not unless you're talking about this." He turned it around in his fingers. He smirked. "You fancy getting one for yourself?"

"You know you're not allowed to have that right?" Mitsuha frowned as her hands going to her hips. Tessie returned her look with a puzzled expression, then shrugged and put the alien tooth away.

Mitsuha went through the day's duties, taking every opportunity to ask around if anyone had heard about the Orks. No one replied in the affirmative, and a bit of Mitsuha's initial worry leaked away with every consecutive denial. Maybe the invasion really was just a minor one, perhaps assaulting one of the planet's other hives, and their unit in the Primaris Hive had just been held back for the protection of the noble houses and not notified of the attack. In that case, the measures she and Miki had set up should ensure the horde's swift elimination.

Mitsuha glanced at her chronometer. She had some time left before her next allotted task.

Taki was far away. The planet's highest nobles lived in Zona 1, Regis, which was nearly on the opposite side on the northeastern side of the hive. It was even further than her chapel, and the Tachibana estate was higher up as well. A visit to Taki would be an all-day affair, and only on the day before Sanguinala would Mitsuha have enough time. There was no time to do so today, but there was time to do something else.

Mitsuha passed by sign marking out the border to Zona 3, Commercia. The streets were just as narrow as they were in Zona Militum, and heaped with refuse in places. Imperial Aquilas were everywhere, immaculate unlike their surroundings, free of graffiti and polished until they were spotless. People moved aside whenever they noticed Mitsuha's robes and Rosarius, lowering their heads and muttering prayers.

Mitsuha walked past a row of market stalls, stopping when her eyes caught on something interesting. It was a white dress with an attached yellow vest, lovingly hand-woven with beautifully colored gems set around its waist that were almost certainly just stained glass. Perhaps it was the obvious care given to its making, or perhaps the reason was deeper, but something about the thing called to her.

"Ah, would you like to buy it?" The old woman behind the stall leaned forward. She was bent-backed and clothed in little more than a dusty, moth-eaten robe, and she seemed to be barely able to see even when she squinted her eyes. And yet, the piece she was offering was spotless and immaculately sewn.

"Long ago, I made this for my daughter's wedding, but then the Guard took her away." She sighed. "I'm sure you know how these things go. Now, I guess the best I can do is sell it to someone who will give it a good home before I die. What say you, young lady? The color goes well with your eyes."

Mitsuha reached out to stroke it with a hand, not withdrawing when the old woman reached out with her own hands to touch her. "How much for it?"

"I was going to sell it for twenty centim, but for you I can lower it to fifteen. I can tell that my girl would have wanted someone like you to have it."

Mitsuha nodded and took out the full twenty coins, pressing them into the old woman's hands and curling her fingers closed around them. She took the dress and raised it over her chest, then held up her Rosarius so that its backside was facing her, polished to a mirror-smooth sheen save for the military ident-code stamped into its surface. She stared at the reflection of herself in her amulet. It did go with her eyes.

Taki had lived in her body for weeks already, so he probably wouldn't care either way. But it would be even better if Mitsuha could meet Miki in person as well while she was there, and she needed something a bit more presentable than her well-worn Ministorum robes.

And maybe, just maybe, Taki would like it too.

"It is because of the efforts of people like your daughter that mankind still survives." Mitsuha said, garnering a smile from the old woman.

"The Divine Emperor thanks your family for your sacrifice."

Mitsuha returned to her room, folding her new acquisition and sliding it into the bottom layer of her dresser. She completed her duties, then had dinner with Sayaka and Tessie before retiring for the evening.

She opened her bottom drawer and stared at the dress, which brought back thoughts of going into the Imperial Guard. The selection would probably be made during one of the days of the Feast, with deployment to occur immediately thereafter.

Mitsuha nodded to herself and made a noise to her throat. She would tell Taki about the Guard when they met face to face.

She washed herself off and slipped into bed. Maybe if they talked about it, he would have an answer.

* * *

...

* * *

Mitsuha awoke. She gathered some water to wash herself off, which she didn't normally do in the mornings. She put on the dress that she'd purchased, taking a moment to smooth out the wrinkles in the mirror. She tied up her hair as she usually did, braiding and plaiting it back before tying it together with a sash. Lastly, she strung her red cord through the notch atop her Rosarius, and hung it from her neck.

"If anyone asks where I am, tell them I'm visiting someone." Mitsuha addressed Tessie and Sayaka. Tessie just raised a questioning eyebrow, but it was Sayaka who spoke up.

"Ehh? Visiting? Visiting who?" Sayaka asked.

"It's nothing." Mitsuha cut her off. She wracked her brain for a suitable explanation, and unable to find one, just started to back away.

"I'll be back late tonight."

It was the day before Sanguinala, the first day of the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension. Already, red badges had been passed out to the preachers, non-commissioned officers and adepts of the unit, to be worn on the Angel's sacred day to commemorate his noble sacrifice. Mitsuha had found one in her dresser, exactly where Taki had stored it.

Mitsuha and Taki had just switched again just two days before, where Taki had reiterated his invitation, and Mitsuha had left a confirmation of her intent on his data-slate.

Slowly, gradually, Mitsuha made her way through the winding streets and narrow corridors of the lower hive toward Zona Regis. She breathed a sigh of relief as she passed into the perimeter of Zona 2, Industria, and caught a tram with a small passenger section that was delivering blended alloys. She took a moment to massage her feet, then stood up again as the railcar screeched to a halt near the border of Zona Regis.

Mitsuha looked up. Above her, the lopsided habs were built in such a haphazard fashion that the ceramite and stone often varied in color and texture by the floor. She glanced at her chronometer. It was already the afternoon.

Mitsuha began to ascend. The crooked hab-blocks faded, replaced by rows of evenly constructed housing units, and then by elegant structures of marble and glass. Soon the structures she passed began to have gardens, boasting profusions of brightly colored blossoms that had to have been imported and tended to at great expense.

Mitsuha's eyes were used to the sparse illumination of the underhive, and she had to stop for a moment to let it adjust to the brightness. The Tachibana estate stretched before her, its gleaming gate having been opened to admit a stream of nervous petitioners. It occupied so much space within the hive that there was enough left for a shining road, that ran deep into the estate grounds.

Armed guards stood in the shadows of the gate, looking over each guest to ensure they were welcome. Mitsuha approached one, who looked her over with a half-lidded gaze.

"I'm here to see Taki Tachibana." She said, holding herself straight, her voice steady and sure.

The guard shrugged and waved her through, and a burst of warmth blossomed in Mitsuha's chest. She strode ahead of the disoriented petitioners, having been here enough times to know the estate grounds. She proceeded toward the inner checkpoints, each time holding herself in the same confident, familiar manner. Each time she was given permission to pass, the warmth in her chest spread a little further, reaching past her legs and down toward her ankles as a tingling sensation. Taki had complained to her about the soreness left by her exercises, which forced him to reduce his physical activity. He would probably be found further inside.

Mitsuha gasped. There he was. There was Taki, lounging in one of the estate's gardens beneath an array of imitation sunlight that cared not for the regular rotations of the planet. His spiky brown hair waved slightly in the artificial breeze. His eyes were fixed intently at his slate, and he didn't look up as Mitsuha inched forward, stopping not five meters away from him.

"Taki." She whispered, brushing back a lock of hair with her hand. He didn't hear her.

"Taki." She repeated, a little louder, putting on her best smile. He glanced up from his slate.

Mitsuha let a whimper escape her lips as she looked into Taki's eyes. There was no recognition there, no flicker of acknowledgement. Only cold indifference.

"Taki, it's me." Mitsuha pointed to herself, maintaining her smile.

"Wha? Who are you? You're not one of the servants. How'd you get in here?" Taki narrowed his eyes suspiciously and looked her up and down.

The warmth faded from Mitsuha's chest, pumping through her face instead. Her hand grasped automatically for her Rosarius, feeling for the heat at its center.

"Guards!" Taki glanced around. Two men were there within moments, bedecked in bulky carapace plates. They closed ranks in front of Mitsuha, armored shoulders slamming together with a sharp report, forming a wall of ceramite and steel between her and Taki.

"Taki. Don't you remember?" Mitsuha pleaded, doing her best to keep her quivering voice steady. She was trembling, and beads of cold sweat built up on her forehead. Her eyes were starting to water. She tried to look past the guards, so that Taki could see her face again. One of them grabbed her by the shoulder, pushing her back.

"Look, I don't have any time for this, could you just show her out of here?" Taki said. Mitsuha could just barely see him waving them away with a hand, before his attention turned back to the contents of his slate.

A strangled sob escaped Mitsuha's throat as the guards moved forward in lockstep. She gasped as one of them leaned forward, the corner of his armor striking her hard on the forehead. It came away wet and red.

The other man seized her other shoulder and pinned her arm against her back. His armored fingertip caught on the edge of her red braided cord, unraveling it as he turned her around to march her away. The Rosarius came loose from her neck.

"Oh." Mitsuha whimpered as the amulet tumbled to the ground, and was stamped into the artificial soil by a careless, armor-shod boot. The tingling sensation in her limbs was gone, replaced by a numbing, nerveless feeling. There was no strength left in them or her to go back for it.

* * *

...

* * *

It was Sanguinala. Makeshift temples to Sanguinius rose alongside those of the Emperor, filled with worshipers that shouted fervent prayers to the Angel. Those who had received red badges bore them proudly on their chests, the mere presence of these emblems seemingly inspiring them to lecture their comrades about the values that the Primarch of the Blood Angels represented.

It was Mitsuha's first festival with the section 3 company, and she was the only one who was silent. She trudged through her duties like a lobotomized servitor, almost mute save for when she needed to speak.

"Mitsuha? Are you okay?" Sayaka said as the three of them gathered for dinner. Mitsuha looked up from her plate to see her two friends staring at her with concerned eyes.

"Sorry." She said. It was all her mouth could produce.

"Mitsuha, I don't know what happened but, we got back our performance results." Sayaka said, giving a smile.

"We made the cut, and after the Feast is over, we'll be going out to the Guard! And even better, our first deployment will be to an agri-world! Fields stretching to the horizon, nothing to block out the sky."

"You'd like that, right?" She said, placing a hand on Mitsuha's shoulder.

Mitsuha looked at Sayaka. She paused, then nodded her head.

"Yeah." She said. She touched a hand to the cut on her forehead. It stung. It would probably scar.

"Yeah, I can accept that." She said.

* * *

...

* * *

According to Ceadounian tradition, the first day of the Feast was to be dedicated to Sanguinius, signifying bonds broken and past ties cast away in the name of duty.

The second represented the Emperor's wounding at the hands of the Arch-Traitor. Catastrophe. Fading hope.

And on the second day of the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, a star fell from the heavens...

* * *

...

* * *

 _\- "A monster once said: your dreams will amount to nothing because you will not win."_


	8. Searching

**Chapter 8: Searching**

* * *

...

* * *

Taki awoke, and he stretched out his arms to feel for Mitsuha's familiar walls before he'd even opened his eyes. There were no walls. Just more bed. Just him and his stupid, useless, pointlessly oversized bed that he would have traded away in a heartbeat for Mitsuha's dark, cramped little room.

Becoming Mitsuha was talking to Mitsuha. No, it was more than talking. It was forging a special connection with her through the exchange of experiences and sensations.

But Taki's wish for another exchange had failed to come true again.

Taki got up, dressed himself, and picked up his data-slate. His bedroom was attached to the manse's northward wall, so he made his way to the estate's southern wing.

Taki sat down in front of a window that faced the direction of Zona 4. A sea of clouds stretched before him, as it did in every other direction. He stared at the blanket of white, skewering it with his gaze, almost willing it to part and expose the lower hive.

Of course, that was impossible, and Taki allowed his head to drop. He looked down at his slate, setting it to display Mitsuha's final entry on its screen.

' _I'll be up there on the day before the Feast! Keep the doors open for me, okay?'_

But she hadn't come. Taki stared at those letters until they were burned into the backs of his eyes, before he slid the data-slate into one of his pockets.

Taki turned, his ears picking up the sounds of distant festivity. Outside in the estate's courtyard, commoner and highborn alike were loudly celebrated the fourth day of the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, representing the moment when the Emperor slew the Arch-Traitor and ended the Heresy in a single stroke.

With the expectation of exchanges even during the festival, Taki hadn't originally planned to attend many of celebrations. His switches with Mitsuha generally left him almost perpetually sore from her increasingly intense exercise sessions, and he had gotten used to limiting his physical activities during the days that followed.

Taki pressed a finger against his thigh. He should've felt a familiar ache, but there was nothing. Like a phantom sensation.

Taki stood up and followed the sounds of revelry out to the front of his family's estate, where a shining road cut through a gleaming gate before winding its way inward. A stage had been set up, and nearly all of his household staff members were gathered in front of it, eyes glued to the spectacle that was taking place upon it. Taki joined the back of the audience without making a sound.

' _Well, I figure you probably don't even know what the days of the Feast stand for.'_ Mitsuha had written for him after he'd confirmed that their worlds were one and the same. ' _I won't be able to be there to explain during the holiday itself, but luckily for you, I've written up a special collection of notes for you right here on what each of the the seven days stands for! If you take a look at them, I promise you'll be able to enjoy the festival more.'_

Taki looked up at the stage, where two figures were visible through the smoke and flashing lights. The one standing on the left was garbed in clotted hues, his armor shaped into twisted talons and covered in hateful symbols and darkly matted furs. A small divot was visible on one shoulder, left there by the stroke of a sword.

This was the Warmaster. The Arch-Traitor. The Greatest of all Betrayers.

A round of gasps rippled through the audience as the second figure rose, his every movement pained but infused with iron resolve. The stage lights focused their beams on him, converging into a halo that played around his head, rising to a blinding brilliance that seemed to refract off the pall of smoke to focus on that dimly glowing divot.

' _Do you know why the Angel is so honored, even among the company of the Emperor's sons? Of course you don't. But it was because of that wound that he gave, the Emperor was able to defeat the Great Betrayer. I hope you're grateful to him!'_

As Taki watched, the Arch-Traitor's armor filled with a searing radiance, and with a final wail he burst apart into scattering shadows and faded into the smoke. A shimmering fog of light remained where he had stood a moment ago, before dispersing off into multiple directions with high-pitched shrieks.

Ah! Taki had read about this in Mitsuha's book. The final blow dealt by the Emperor had been so powerful, that even the dark powers that had backed the Arch-Traitor were sent screaming away into the abyss. Taki opened up a new entry in his slate, and his fingers drummed the keys as he typed.

' _Hey Mitsuha, don't underestimate me! You know what, I bet you didn't realize that I know all about how the Emperor drove out the things that were-'_

Taki stopped. He had taken for granted before that Mitsuha would see whatever he wrote once they switched, but now a trickle of doubt wormed through his mind. It gnawed at him, eating away at something that should have been there until it no longer was.

Like a phantom sensation.

Taki closed his eyes and let out a slow breath. A message appeared on his slate. He was expected at a banquet that was being held in celebration of the festival, but also cementing the increasingly closer ties between the Tachibana and Okudera estates. He separated himself from the crowd, departing without a word and leaving them to their show.

Taki returned to his room, and changed into his formal dining clothing. He arrived at the banquet behind a trio of preachers, each swinging an elaborate incense-holder that filled the air with curling tendrils of bright blue smoke. The guests trooped in after them, scores of the richest and most influential people in the system, nearly everyone who was someone within the Tachibana and Okudera blocs.

Taki sat opposite Miki along the length of the dining table. He tried to look her in the eye and smile, but his gaze soon slid away. When he looked back, he saw the concern flickering in her olive-colored pupils.

"Friends and family." Lord Tachibana began from his traditional position at the head of the table. "We gather at this auspicious time to celebrate the increasingly close ties between our two houses. It pleases my heart to see the next generation taking charge and making their ambitions known. Already, we have received a missive from Lord Tanaka, who has informed me that he intends to-"

Taki tuned his father out, reducing his voice to indistinct, background murmur, as the topic drifted to something about the power balance with the governor. He didn't deserve this credit, since he himself had barely done anything to bring about this situation. Becoming friends with Miki, leveraging their resources against the Orks, that was all Mitsuha's doing.

Taki frowned as the thought brought back memories of his time down in the lower hive. Strangely enough, he hadn't seen or heard anything about a greenskin invasion during the entire time he was down there. Perhaps it had been a minor one that had attacked some other hive. If that was the case, then the fruits of Mitsuha and Miki's efforts should see to its rapid destruction.

Taki took a thin sip of his aged amasec, then lifted his cutlery and cut off a bite-sized piece of his chilled tsuchinoko crab. He nibbled at its edge as the family patriarchs finished speaking, and conversation began again along the length of the table. Some of them were too close to ignore entirely, and Taki caught snatches here and there of the ongoing discussions.

"-had to give my staff some time off for today's festival. It's fortunate that this only comes once a year, no?"

"I've just gotten word that there has been damage to one of our warehouses. It must be the celebrators. I'll contact the Arbites and have them find-"

Taki made a noise in his throat. Not only did Mitsuha fail to come, but ever since the switches had started, they had never gone this long without switching before. Maybe something had happened to her. Maybe she got sick. Or perhaps she'd gotten into an accident as he'd seen happening often down in the lower hive. Or even if not-

"-quite troublesome, isn't it, young lord Tachibana?" One of Taki's neighbors turned to him, jarring him out of his thoughts.

Taki's glanced at the other man with narrowed eyes, but kept his face looking straight ahead. He nodded curtly, then mustered up a convincing smile.

"Of course. It would be just awful if you were to lose any hours of sleep over this."

The first guests did not begin to file out of the banquet hall until well into the evening. As the heir apparent of the Tachibana Conglomerate, Taki was one of the last to leave. Instead of returning to his manse, he made his way to the jutting balcony where Mitsuha and Miki had their meetings whenever she was in his body. He leaned against the railing. The sun had already set, its last rays glimmering like fading embers on the horizon.

"Taki, do you want some?"

Taki turned to see Miki approaching him. She carried a lighter in one hand, while the other held up an unlit lho-stick between her index and middle fingers.

"No thanks. You know those aren't good for you right?" Taki said. Miki frowned briefly, then shrugged and put the stick and lighter away.

"Taki, I know what your mask looks like, and I know that something's affecting you." She said.

"If you want to talk about it, I'll listen."

Taki looked into Miki's eyes as he wrestled with his emotions. Her long eyelashes were curled skyward, and her hair was done up, leaving just a pair of spiraling locks to frame her face. She'd come to the banquet dressed in a flowing rose-colored gown, and a pair of pink diamond earrings that glimmered in the dim light. Her smile, once so biting and caustic, was warm and friendly, welcoming him to speak his mind to her.

Taki's mouth went dry. Miki was actually quite beautiful. He had just never noticed from underneath his mask of bitterness, and she beneath hers.

Taki closed his eyes, and opened them again. But what was he supposed to say to her? What could he say to her that would make her understand?

Taki shook his head. "No, it's nothing. Sorry for making you worry about me."

Taki returned to his room, and laid his forehead down against a pillow. There was one particular suspicion that had been growing within him these past few days. Maybe it had all been a dream. Maybe he even wanted to believe that it had all been just a dream. That would certainly be easier.

Taki took a deep breath. It couldn't have been a dream. He'd never had any idea before of what life in the lower hive was like, nor had he known what true faith meant to those who had almost nothing. And even discounting that, he could never that believe the entries on his slate had been written by his own two hands.

Miki's kindly smiling face flashed through Taki's mind. Taki could never have made peace with her just by himself either. Their circumstances had set them up for inevitable conflict, placed them on rails heading for a collision course. Mitsuha had found them a better way.

Taki placed his slate on the floor as he lowered himself into his bath, sinking down to his neck in the warm, gently running water. He had heard Mitsuha's voice, heard her bright laughter in his ears. He had felt her heartbeat in his chest, felt her breath on his lips, felt the warmth of her hands when he'd touched them to his face. He had stared at her grinning reflection in the mirror as he had vented and argued, teased back and forth, and exposed his inner feelings to her.

If Mitsuha wasn't real, then nothing else could or would ever be.

Taki felt his tensed body relax as something settled into place within him. It was suddenly hard to even hold his head up, and it took a great effort just to lift himself from the water and dry himself off with his suddenly enervated limbs. He picked up his slate, and looked at its final entry one last time.

' _I'll be up there on the day before the Feast! Keep the doors open for me, okay?'_

Taki collapsed onto his bed, and before he fell asleep, he made the same wish as before. However, this time he included an addendum that should it not come true, that he would go down and search for Mitsuha the next day.

* * *

...

* * *

 _\- "A monster once said: your wishes have no meaning because you are not me."_


	9. Into the Depths

**Chapter 9: Into the Depths**

* * *

...

* * *

Taki awoke. He looked himself up and down, even stood in front of his full-length mirror and stared at his reflection for a moment.

He hadn't become Mitsuha.

There was only one thing left to do then.

Zona 4 was far away, so Taki requisitioned a traveler's pack, and stuffed it with three days worth of his most functional clothing. He gathered up a few hundred centines for purchasing food and dumped them into a side pocket. He powered up his slate, scanning his eyes over Mitsuha's final entry one last time, then reviewed his map of the hive's internal divisions. Her unit was just past the Zona's void shield generators, which were normally kept powered down in order to save electricity, and only activated to insulate the hive against inclement weather.

Taki frowned as he slid the slate into his pack. If he asked for guards, they'd probably just hold him, since he needed his father's permission for him to go to the lower hive. However, he had no idea where his father was today, nor whether he could even say the right words to convince him to allow it at all. Yes there was perhaps some minor danger to leaving the upper spire, but once he reached the location where Mitsuha's unit was stationed, then she would recognize him and all would be well.

Even if nothing had happened to Mitsuha, she was no doubt worried about the sudden cut-off as well. Taki needed to go and meet her as soon as possible.

Taki swept his eyes over the contents of his closet one last time. His eyes widened and a hint of a smile appeared on his face. That's right, he did have something for this situation.

Taki opened his locked box, and removed the Rosarius from its velvet cushion. He took the red cord that he kept with it, tied its ends into a knot, then hung the double-headed amulet around his neck as he had done in Mitsuha's body. He tucked it into his shirt, feeling the coolness of its outer edge, contrasting with a soft warmth that radiated from something embedded within its center.

Soul's Armor. That was what Mitsuha's abbess had called it. Something that would protect his soul from departing this world before its time.

It was the fifth day of the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, representing the moment when the Emperor's motionless body had been discovered by Primarch Rogal Dorn. Sorrow and loss were the prevailing themes of the day, and most of the observants had taken to their own homes to engage in personal rituals and symbolic sacrifices.

With the household staff scarcely to be seen, it was easier for Taki to sneak out of the manse without being questioned about his pack. Only the guards manning the outer gates saw him, and there, Taki held his posture straight and strode past them with confidence. They made no attempt to stop him.

Taki wound his way down the spire, passing by rows of manses carved from white marble and gleaming glass. Many displayed verdant gardens, and adorned their walls and roofs with finely wrought statuary and delicate reliefs. These were the houses of the lesser nobles, branch families or major subsidiaries. If anything, their outward displays of wealth and prominence were even more relatively ostentatious than those of the great houses, for they undoubtedly had more to prove.

Taki passed into the lower habs, below where the spire's base joined with the main body of the hive city proper. Here, the servants of the noble houses lived according to their means, and the neatly constructed habs gradually gave way to lopsided buildings and uneven stonework.

Taki wound through the narrow streets, never keeping too long on a single path, and kept his face away from windows and crowds. The Tachibana Conglomerate was the biggest and wealthiest on the planet after all, and considerable proportion of the Zone population could probably recognize him on close inspection. Thankfully, Zona Regis was the smallest of the hive's five divisions, and Taki allowed his stiffness to loosen a bit as the wall dividing it from Zona Industria loomed before him. He looked down at his body. He was already further from home than he had ever traveled on foot, but his limbs still felt refreshed, and he wasn't even breathing hard.

There was no way to get the main gate to open without attracting unwanted attention, so Taki located a side tunnel that wound its way through the wall. He groped about in the dim light, passing a few workers, before finally following one and entering to the other side.

Taki flinched as he was struck by a wave of heat, as heavy and tangible in that moment as a real, physical wall. A forest of pipes and manufactorums stretched before him, illuminated by the furnace glows of steel smelters and metal mills. The air shimmered around them, bending to and fro like the heat haze of a tropical hab.

The sharp tang of promethium filled Taki's nose, and he bent over and coughed into his hand. His eyes watered slightly, and he wiped them clean before casting his gaze out across the sea of clanking industry. He needed to pass through this place fast, but the only foot-paths through this cityscape were the tangles of walkways and winding ledges that wound through and between the individual structures. One could get lost in here for ages, and Taki didn't have that long.

A low rumble reached Taki's ears. He glanced in its direction, noticing a train passing between a pair of manufactorums, its open-topped carriages hauling masses of crushed ore. He let out his breath as the thought struck him. He'd spent the week leading up to Mitsuha's conference studying and making arrangements, both with his family's and Miki's suppliers and subsidiaries.

Taki closed his eyes, picturing the network of adjacencies and the connections that ran between them. An outline of a viable path solidified in his mind, one that would take him all the way across to Zona Commercia.

It took Taki an hour to locate the train's unloading station, and another two to make the transfers to his planned route. He swallowed his pride along the way, and begged a dust mask from a worker sitting across from him who never stopped giving him odd looks for the entire ride. His hands and clothes were sooty, and there was a persistent ache in his feet, but something within him lightened as he saw the great, bold letters marking out the border of Zona Commercia.

Taki checked his coin pouch. His limbs were starting to get a bit listless from hunger, but he pressed on through a tunnel into Zona Commercia. While the spire nobles plied their trade with the chartist captains from the hive's spaceports, Zona Commercia was the location of the hive's local markets, where the lower and middle classes went to spend their spare centims. Taki could find something to eat there, and refresh himself before he passed into Zona Militum to find Mitsuha.

Taki blinked and looked around. He had never been to Zona Commercia, but from his time in Mitsuha's unit he had picked up an image of a raucous bedlam. He had pictured streets thronged with customers, with vendors calling out their prices and haggling loudly with potential buyers, all underlaid by the jangling of coins and goods exchanging hands.

Instead, the streets were empty. A few stalls lined the sidewalks here and there, long-abandoned, crumbling and collecting dust where they sat. In some areas the already-dim lighting was barely a flicker, drenching those places in patches of darkness that loomed like shadowy monuments around the tightly packed habs.

Taki continued on, resisting the urge to chew his lower lip. Here and there his ears picked up wailing lamentations, women crying out for their lost family members while men pleaded to the Emperor, begging him to reveal to them what they had done to deserve this punishment. He passed by a window, where he caught a glance of the inhabitants looking out with fearful eyes. One large open chamber was lined with white sheets, many of them covering what Taki guessed were bodies. Its marble mosaic floor was splattered with blood in places.

It'll be alright, Taki told himself, ignoring the drumming of his pulse that was growing louder in his ears by the moment. Once he reached Zona Militum, he could join up with Mitsuha's unit at the Paderu Wall, and he would be safe under their protection from whatever was happening around here. He told himself that he had already come this far, and there was no point turning back now.

Taki approached a wall marking out one of Zona Commercia's internal divisions. He stared at it with wide eyes. One of the tunnels threading through it had collapsed. In its place was a gaping fissure, smaller cracks spider-webbing out from its edges. The result of poor maintenance perhaps, though if Taki didn't know any better, he might have guessed that the wall had been struck with great force. Perhaps from the other side.

Taki tossed a hunk of ceramite into the gap to make sure it wasn't going to collapse further. Then, he gulped and clambered through the crack, taking care not to step on any loose rubble that could see him slipping and hitting something in the fall. He had already come this far, no point turning back now. His breath caught for a moment as saw something when he pulled himself out the other end.

A black metal behemoth lay on its side, like a mish-mash of tanks and personnel carriers welded together onto a dual-tracked chassis. The remains of cannons could still be seen atop its carriage, mounted on fat, swiveling mantlets. Its insides were charred, and it looked like something that belonged more in a junkyard than any sort of proper military vehicle. Then again, it also appeared to have been abandoned for quite some time, so perhaps its condition could be because of that.

This side was even more dimly lit, and Taki had to pause for a moment to let his eyes adjust once he left the radius of light spilling from the crack in the dividing wall. Even the lamentations were gone now, replaced by a deathly silence, interspersed by occasional rumbles that echoed across the distance. Buildings were empty, and some of them were partially crumbled, blocking off streets with mounds of broken rubble. There was an oddly sharp stink in the air, and not one that he recognized from anywhere.

Taki took a step, then found he could go no further. His heart quickened, his breaths were short and shallow, and his feet were heavy as if encased in ceramite. His every instinct screamed at him to turn back, that there was something that was very, very wrong here.

The resolution that he'd made the night before fought back against his fear. Zona Militum was just a little further, and this was the only way through. He repeated his mantra in his mind. He had already come this far, he couldn't just turn back. The guards back home had probably reported his absence by now, and if he went back without seeing Mitsuha, he'd probably be detained and never be allowed another opportunity to come down. What was he to do? Just forget about her?

Taki put his thoughts aside when he heard a shuffling sound to his right. He spun to face it. Visibility was poor, but a spark of hope lit in Taki's chest that maybe he could find someone who he could pay to take him through.

A trio of figures closed from around a corner, and Taki's heart plummeted into his gut as he saw them for what they were. The intensity of the acrid stink rose to a stomach-turning foulness.

Taki had seen the Munitorum propaganda-vids depicting the xenos. Stupid. Clumsy. Stooped in such a manner as to render their statures shorter than men. A persistent, bothersome chore for the Astra Militarum to cut back and keep down.

How wrong they were.

In life, in the flesh before him, the Orks were huge. They were taller than most men despite their hunched posture, with thick cords of knotted muscles and tree-trunk limbs. Heavy pistols and blades were gripped in boulder-like fists, and their green skin was dyed and dusted with colorful inks and powders. Their movements were efficient and purposeful, radiating strength and manifest density. Red-slit eyes blinked as they noticed Taki, burning like hot coals beneath the shadows of their thick, jutting brows, glimmering with a malicious intellect that stole his breath away.

They were truly monsters.

Taki stepped back, dazed and trembling. His mind fogged, unable to muster up the clarity for measured thought. Orks? _Orks?_ What were Orks doing here?

The largest greenskin roared, its mouth splitting open to send spittle flying, exposing its curved yellow tusks and splintered molars. The sound struck Taki like a hammer blow to the lungs, sending a jolt of white-hot terror strobing through his numbing body.

Taki ran, his pulse drumming in his ears, his breaths hard and panting. Heavy footsteps followed, accompanied by the baying, barking sound of malevolent xenos laughter. In a tiny part of his mind not consumed by mortal terror, Taki noted that the Orks were making sport of him.

One of the Orks fired its pistol, the noise of its discharge ringing like a crack of thunder. The heavy round flew past, slamming into a wall and sending ceramite splinters flying. This set the others off, and soon the air was filled with the ear-splitting blasts of greenskin gunfire. A flash of light leapt from Taki's back, accompanied by a strange prickling sensation in his skin and a flare of warmth from his amulet.

Taki's vision tunneled. Escape. He needed a way to escape. Narrow. Alleys. Some of the alleyways were piled high with chunks of rubble, the gaps between them too narrow for the broad-shouldered greenskins to pass through. He sprinted for one, faster than he'd ever thought he could run, and dove through a crack before the Orks could lay hands on him.

The laughter of the Orks behind Taki turned to howls of frustration. As Taki crawled out the other side of the rubble pile and pulled himself to his feet, the greenskins began to batter at the obstruction. Through the gaps in the mound, Taki could see them xenos picking up slabs of calcicrete the size of five men and hurling them aside with dull thuds.

Taki's feet hit the ground. His legs and lungs burned. He'd run longer than he'd ever thought possible for himself, but he couldn't run forever. The rubble pile wouldn't last, and he didn't know if there were even more of the xenos lurking around. He needed to hide.

Taki rounded a corner and spotted another debris mound, where the street below was cracked. He lowered himself into one crack that was shadowed by the rubble above, and curled his body into a ball.

Heavy footsteps approached Taki's hiding place, and a guttural voice barked out orders in the greenskins' crude tongue. The three split up, searching and sniffing the surrounding area. Bile rose in Taki's throat as the alien stink grew to an unbearable level, and he swallowed it to keep himself from gagging. He squeezed his eyes shut, fumbled with his Rosarius, and prayed to the Emperor to not let the Orks find him.

There was a sharp crack, accompanied by a flash of light that was bright even through Taki's eyelids. The Orks roared, and Taki could hear one running off in another direction, managing to make it a dozen steps before its footsteps were silenced by a staccato salvo of identical peals.

Slowly, cautiously, Taki peeked his head above the lip of the crack he was hiding in. His eyes followed the traceries of light in the air to where the Orks had taken cover within a nearby building, trading fire with a dozen figures hunkered down at the end of the street. One of the distant figures hefted a thick tube over his shoulder, and send a missile streaking forth from its muzzle. It slammed into the building where the Orks had taken cover, swallowing them in the explosion and the ensuing rain of falling rubble. White light filled Taki's vision as his Rosarius warded off the blast, but something got through and he cried out as he felt a sharp pain in his cheek. He touched a hand to it. It came away warm and wet.

By the time Taki blinked away the remnants of the flash, several of the soldiers were already gathered around his hiding place. One reached in with a hand to help him out, while he saw several more standing over the rubble pile and the fallen greenskin, emptying canisters of promethium over them before lighting them on fire.

As he clambered out onto the street, Taki's adrenaline rush faded, leaving him shivering even though the lower hive was uniformly warm. His legs felt like fried rubber, he was bruised and scratched all over, and it was all he could do to slump back against the rubble and look up at the soldiers gathering in a semi-circle around him.

"You a noble? What's a noble boy doing here?" One man asked.

Taki was still breathless from his chase, so he nodded. He had come dressed in his most practical clothing, but despite the soot and smudges and rips, it wasn't hard to tell that it was still of expensive make.

"If he's a noble then let's off him." Another man shoved his way to the front. "Dump the body, nobody'll find it, nobody'll know it was us."

Taki froze, his eyes going wide. He opened his mouth to say something, but his words choked in his throat. This wasn't like with the Orks; he was surrounded in plain sight, with his back to the wall.

He really was going to die here.

"Takuo! By Throne, what is wrong with you?" Another soldier, a woman, interjected. "You don't even know who this kid is, and you just jump straight to murder?"

"Look, how many years have those spire bastards left us out to dry, eh? How many years have we spent our lives for them, fighting these green monsters down here. I say it's about time we got some-"

The man's voice cut off abruptly, and the line of soldiers parted as an older soldier approached, his slightly graying hair cut into a close-cropped flattop. From his time with Mitsuha's unit, Taki recognized the triple chevrons on the man's shoulder as the insignia of a sergeant. He bent down slightly, looking Taki up and down with narrowed eyes.

"Do you idiots even know who this is?" He rose and addressed the others, though from the tone of his voice he seemed to be admonishing the murderous soldier in particular.

"This is the son of the Tachibana head, the only reason you even got a damn sniff of this thing." He rapped a knuckle against the other man's lasgun. "So I expect I'll be hearing no talk about anything like killing from any of you, do I make myself clear?

They nodded, and, satisfied, the sergeant turned back toward Taki.

"We were just about to head back to base when we heard the commotion and found you over here. Now I don't know what your situation is, and I won't propose to keep you from doing whatever you were doing down here, but if you want you can come with us." He offered.

* * *

...

* * *

The squad drew back to the safer section of Zona Commercia, where the 'base' in question was little more than a domed arcade piled high with spare supplies. The soldiers sat themselves around metal drums filled with burning rubbish, eating and joking and tallying up the day's kills.

"Taki, just call me Taki." Taki said to the sergeant. He had a whole list of formal titles and such that were supposed to be used in his presence, but it didn't sit right with him to demand such in this situation, from a man who had saved his life twice within a span of minutes.

Taki stood up to unstrap his backpack from his waist, only for his listless legs to collapse out from under him. He had walked all day, been chased by Orks, and not had a single bite to eat since he'd left his home that morning. He touched a hand to the cut on his cheek left by the missile blast. It stung. It would probably scar.

"Here." The sergeant leaned forward, offering Taki a ration pack, along with a drink of water from a canteen. The biscuits inside were hard, the slop clung to the insides of his mouth, and the water had the bitter tang of purification tablets.

Taki accepted the gift and thanked the sergeant, then choked it all down without a word. He stood up for a moment to detach his pack, feeling some of the strength and warmth returning to his limbs.

"So then, Taki, if you don't mind sating my curiosity a bit." The sergeant began. "What's a spire prince like you doing wandering around down here? War's going badly, but even if the Orks made it up to the top, you'd be able to get away through your spaceport wouldn't you?"

Of course, Taki could muster no satisfactory answer for that, so instead he changed the subject.

"How did things get like this?" He asked, sitting back down. "When I was at Zona Militum, I didn't hear anything about any Orks."

The other soldiers were giving Taki unhidden stares now. Several shook their heads and muttered about nobles not knowing anything about anything.

"No! I really was just there!" Taki insisted, rising to his feet, his hand going automatically to the Rosarius around his neck. "Just one week ago I was at the Paderu Wall, in Section 3 of Zona Militum. There wasn't any sign of this, so how-"

The sergeant raised a hand to cut Taki off, then stood up and met him eye to eye.

"Boy, Taki, do you know about the space hulk that fell three years ago?" He asked.

Taki nodded. Something tingled in the back of his mind. But what did that have to do with-

"As the hulk fell, pieces of it broke off and struck this city and others." The sergeant completed his thought. "One of them landed on the Paderu Wall. Section 3 of Zona Militum was destroyed three years ago, and that's where they came in. Zona Militum is completely overrun."

* * *

...

* * *

 _\- "A monster once said: your struggles will be of no avail because you are not strong enough."_


	10. The Bearer of the Embers

**Chapter 10: The Bearer of the Embers**

* * *

...

* * *

Taki stumbled back, as if he'd been struck in the face. Section 3 destroyed? Zona Militum overrun? That- that couldn't be possible.

"But just one week ago, I was…" Taki said, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the zone. He tried to muster up more volume into his denials, as if his continued insistence could force back the dawning truth of the matter.

The sergeant shrugged as if he had seen this sort of thing countless times before. He stood up and motioned with a hand, gesturing for Taki to follow him.

"Where are we going?" Taki said, filing in behind the older man.

"To the outer perimeter." Came the other man's reply.

The sergeant lead Taki away from their encampment, occasionally detouring to circle around unnavigable areas, but always returning to the same heading. Something tingled at the back of Taki's mind as they passed one intersection between a pair of narrow streets, but the other man was already moving ahead, and Taki put it out of his thoughts as he jogged to catch up. The other man stopped in front of a window, then moved aside for Taki.

"Here. See for yourself." He gestured.

Taki squinted his eyes. He checked his chronometer to confirm that it was sunset, but outside there was only a dim, dingy twilight, the light of the sun diffused and concealed by layers of gray smog. A brownish-yellow haze hung in the air, rising from the ground amidst a sea of glowing pinpoints.

Taki's eyes widened as he made out the dark shapes moving amidst the lights. Slab-sided vehicles trundled alongside mobs of alien infantry, swarming through and over the hive's ruined outskirts. Taki followed their movements with his gaze, tracing them to a gap in the hive's outer wall.

The hive's outer wall was dozens of meters thick, but it had been laid open, pried apart and caved in by an enormous force. A skeleton of wreckage still lay there, its remains twisted and curled like upturned claws, resting half-buried within a crater of its own making. In his mind's eye Taki could almost see the flaring trajectory of its initial descent, though only a bare frame remained of it now, the rest of it stripped bare by plundering alien hands. A steady stream of invaders flowed through the gap, like water running down an open drain.

Taki raised a hand to wipe away the hot droplets forming on the back his neck. He almost expected blood, only for his fingers to come away wet with transparent sweat. His pulse pounded in his ears, and it hurt to even breathe through the tightening in his chest.

That was where he'd been going. Section 3, the Paderu Wall.

"That was where the fragment hit." The sergeant said. He suddenly looked tired.

"I knew a few men from the units stationed there. And, well..." He trailed off.

Taki's opened his pack, grasping at his data-slate like a drowning man desperately reaching for a lifeline. He flipped through his entries with a frantic haste as if the power cell would die right then and there if he didn't get another look at them.

There they all were. Mitsuha's journal entries. They were there as he expected, and there was no way he could have written them on his own.

Taki's eyes flicked between his diary entries and the impactor, willing the contradiction to resolve itself in his favor. He heard a soft thud, and it was only the pain that came a moment after that made him realize it was his own body slumping to the ground. His data-slate clattered to the floor from his nerveless fingers. He gazed up at the sergeant, who gave him a look of sympathy, then tilted his head to indicate that they should go back.

Taki picked up his slate and trudged behind the other man as they returned to the unit, where the other soldiers were still going on about the day's exploits. His ears could no longer make out their words, only the fact that they were speaking a familiar language. He collapsed onto the ground like an unstrung puppet, leaned his head against the side of his pack, and closed his eyes.

* * *

...

* * *

It was the sixth day of the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, considered to represent the final act of Malcador the Hero before he'd crumbled to dust from the strain of powering the Golden Throne. A last mote of psychic strength and will had been passed from him to the Emperor, enabling the Master of Mankind to speak his final words, carrying with them instructions that had laid the foundation for the next ten thousand years of the Imperium's existence.

"Here. Eat this on the way back up." The sergeant said, shoving a ration pack into Taki's hands.

"Fumio! Suzuko!" He called, prompting two of the soldiers - a man and a woman - to stand up and snap to attention.

"We're off the front lines today, so you're to make sure this kid gets back to the border with Zona Industria. Should be safe enough there, and he can get home on his own after that."

The three of them departed, and Taki said nothing as he trailed behind the two soldiers. The space hulk had struck three years ago, and afterwards his exchanges with Mitsuha had come to a definitive halt. They were separated by three years, and the switching had stopped because she had died three years ago.

"Ugh, why do we gotta do this?" The man griped once the three of them were out of the sergeant's earshot. He was about to say more but a disapproving look from his partner silenced his objection.

"Because if he's the one who got us supplied then it's better if we make sure he gets back safe." She said. "Seriously Fumio, try to think a little before you talk."

They walked for hours, passing another window that showed the devastation outside. Taki glanced through it while he pictured the view from his home. Up in the spires, the sea of clouds spread out in every direction, its uniform tranquility disturbed by neither impacts nor Orks. There was nothing Taki could do, no way to change the past, but at least now he could continue the work that Mitsuha had started. Now that he had seen the horror below with his own eyes, he could continue to advocate for the militia and the lower classes. And perhaps Mitsuha would be happy for him, if she ever looked down from wherever she was now.

Fumio and Suzuko lead Taki upward to bypass a ruined section. As they ascended, the architecture began to change, signifying their entry into the bounds of the lower hive. Automatically and without conscious thought, Taki's hand went to his Rosarius, gripping the double-headed amulet so tightly that his knuckles were white.

"Hey kid, where'd you get that?" Suzuko asked as she glanced back to see what the holdup was. She approached Taki, bending down to have a closer look at the object in his hand.

"Yeah, that's a Rosarius alright." She said, pointing at it with a finger. "I thought these things were only issued to the preachers of the creed. Even if you're the richest kid on the planet, it shouldn't be possible for you to buy one of these right?"

"I didn't buy it." Taki began, turning away defensively, shielding the Rosarius with his body. "But I've had it for three years, and I remember getting it from.."

Taki trailed off. He wracked his memory. He'd found it three years ago, after some sort of altercation between someone and his guards. He'd kept it all these years, though it was only recently that he had learned its name and its function.

"Soul's Armor." The other soldier - Fumio his name was - interjected in an almost reverent tone, almost mirroring Taki's exact thoughts. "So that's what that flash was when we blasted the greens."

"With how close you were to the bang, we figured we'd be fishin' out a bloody mess from that pile. But that thing kept your soul from going to the Emperor before it was time." He added, then tapped a finger against his cheek. "Though if you keep pressin' your luck, who knows how much longer you'll have to live."

"Let me have a look." He reached out with a hand. When Taki drew back, he added, "Promise I won't steal it or anything. Sarge'll kill me if this gets back, and that's only if Suzuko here doesn't get her jabs in first."

Taki handed it over slowly, and Fumio turned the amulet over onto its front, squinting his eyes to read off the ident-code that was stamped into its back.

"That's military code alright." He said as he gave it back. "If I had to guess, I'd say it was issued probably three, maybe four years ago. So practically brand new then. Now I don't know what kind of channels you had to go through to get your hands on this, but…"

Taki was no longer listening. Military issue? Memories of eating at a mess hall welled up in his mind. Three or four years ago? Complaints about the new priest rang in his ears. A sharp ache seared itself into Taki's head.

Someone had trespassed onto his estate three years ago, and he'd had them escorted out by his guards. No, not them. It was her.

Taki let out a shuddering breath. So that was Mitsuha. Mitsuha had come to see him three years ago, on his invitation, and he'd had her thrown out like a common crook. And even despite all that, she was still protecting him. His study into Zona Industria's layout had been done at her bidding, his escape from the Orks had been made possible by her exercises, and his life had been saved a dozen times over by the Rosarius that she had left him. Even these two soldiers here were only helping him because of her idea to force the noble houses to supply them.

Taki's eyes stung. He turned away slightly wiped at them with a arm. His sleeve came away stained by warm, wet droplets.

"Is something wrong?" Suzuko asked.

Soul's Armor. A shield of light with a spark of the Emperor's divinity that would carry and preserve the soul, and keep it from passing before its time. Well, Mitsuha had certainly passed well before her time.

Taki looked up at the surrounding architecture, a motley arrangement stuck halfway between the ordered arrangements of the upper hive and the cluttered mess of the lower. He had been here before. In Mitsuha's body.

"Sorry Mitsuha." Taki said. "Sorry for giving up on you just like that."

"Did you say something?" Fumio waved a hand at Taki.

Taki looked up and blinked his eyes clear.

"I'm not going back just yet." He said, turning to his two companions.

"So you really do have a death wish?" Fumio fixed him with a skeptical look, tinged with exasperation at being dragged along with all this.

"I'm not going anywhere dangerous, and you don't have to come with me." Taki replied. "You can go back if you want, and tell your commander that you took me to Zona Industria, and that I said thanks for all the help."

Taki set his jaw and leveled his shoulders, and the two soldiers exchanged glances. Then, seeing his resolve, they departed and waved goodbye.

Taki waited until they were gone before he began his ascension, and the architecture shifted further into the style of the upper hive. In his memory the area had been well-lit, but now most of the lights were dimmed. The district's proximity to the front line had seen it abandoned by its former residents, so there was no one left to ask for instructions.

Taki chose his steps carefully, desperately grasping at what remained of his memories at every twist and turn. The silence was gripping, almost sucking away the strength from his aching limbs. It was getting late, and Taki sat down, leaning against a household gate as he devoured his rations. With every swallowed mouthful, he felt the heaviness in his stomach, and resumed his trek once some of the warmth had returned to his tired legs.

Taki let out a breath as his eyes fell upon the familiar entryway to Mitsuha's chapel, practically squeezed in between the bounds of a pair of upper hive manses. The gently smiling face of Mitsuha's abbess spread out in Taki's mind, and as he stepped foot into the shrine, he almost expected her to be there waiting for him. Somehow, even in the middle of an abandoned district made scarce by war, her presence would not have seemed out of place.

Instead, the shrine was silent and empty, its floor covered in a thin layer of dust and the sole lumen bulb lying shattered on the ground. The statue of the Emperor however, was still perfectly intact, maintaining its silent vigil over the empty cell.

Taki knelt down before the statue. It was rude to enter a chapel and leave without praying first. Empty or abandoned, it mattered not, the Emperor was always watching.

Taki almost cried out as the hive's structure shook, causing dust and flakes of calcicrete to rain down from the ceiling. A deep rumble conducted through the ground, a rhythmic, thunderous drumbeat. It broke over his head, twisted in his gut, and rattled him to the very bone.

Taki gripped the Rosarius with a hand, feeling some strength return to his limbs and back. Its center was warm. He clasped his other hand around it, then closed his eyes and prayed. His voice quivered, and his throat tightened as he let a trickle of urgency leak into his words.

A lilting melody sounded in Taki's ears, a rising chorus of voices that doused the distant thunder. Light blossomed, iron-sharp silver intertwined with molten golds that rippled and flowed like refractions across a watery surface. Sensation vanished; the aching in Taki's feet from hours of walking melting away to nothing, the musty smell of dust in his nostrils fading like a forgotten memory. Only the warmth of the Rosarius in Taki's hands did not disappear.

Taki looked up. The statue of the Emperor glared down at him, a motionless silhouette framed against a silver sun. Glittering droplets formed, accumulating at the corners of its eyes once more.

Taki reached out with a hand, lifting one off with the tip of his finger. Immediately, the light and melody faded, and sensation returned in a sudden wave.

"It didn't work huh?" Taki said, allowing his hand and his head to fall. Then he saw it.

There was something on his finger, so miniscule that he couldn't feel it. It glimmered like a diamond in the light, sparkling with some unsourced radiance despite the near-darkness of the chapel.

The Emperor's tear.

Taki froze, holding his arm stiff to make sure that he would not lose this most priceless of treasures. Slowly, gingerly, he retracted his hand to daub it onto Mitsuha's Rosarius. The amulet was known as the Soul's Armor. Well if that was true, then something of Mitsuha - some shard or fragment of her soul - should still reside within it. And if the Emperor's Tear could cure any ailment or injury, then it should-

Taki paused. The Abbess was long gone, but the familiar sensation of the pressure on his knees brought her words back like a rushing tide. The Emperor's tears had not cured the Ecclesiarch. The Emperor did not look kindly upon self-pity.

"The Emperor helps those who help themselves." He mouthed off the old woman's words.

Keeping one eye on the droplet balanced on his finger, Taki removed his data-slate from his pack with his other hand. He powered it on, and entered a new log.

 _'Mitsuha, I came down to look for you. And, if you're seeing this, then it worked.'_

Laying the slate down beside him, Taki dabbed the droplet against the Rosarius. The rumbles of the tremors seemed to fade from his ears, until the only noise left was the sound of Taki's breathing.

They could still connect.

"One last time." He said, his voice barely above a whisper. Mitsuha had firmly believed that their switches were the product of the Emperor's will. And near the end of their exchanges, Taki had started believing it too.

"One last time. Let me go back. I'll save her, and Saya, and Tessie. I won't let any of them die."

Taki swayed as a sudden lightheadedness came over him. Perhaps it was the long day, the exhausting climb, or maybe it was just the release of tension that came from giving voice to his wish. His vision spun, and he had to lean back on his free hand for support. His memory raced, showing him the events of that fateful day when a star fell from the heavens. He saw the void tear, saw the shroud of flame descend from the sky. He didn't even feel his shoulder colliding with the floor as the fire and great shape broke apart, and a spire-sized fragment collided with his body.

* * *

...

* * *

 _\- "I cannot say whether you will win, or even if you will live. But I do know this, beyond any doubt."_


	11. Memories Etched Upon the Soul

**Chapter 11: Memories Etched Upon the Soul**

* * *

...

* * *

Taki awoke, and before he'd even opened his eyes, he knew. He jolted up and looked all around. The hard floor, the confined walls, the dim lighting around him. The thin nightgown, the toned body, the bulge around his chest.

Taki let out a breath. It was Mitsuha's breath that spilled across his lips. The breath grew to a peal of laughter escaped his slender throat. It was Mitsuha's laughter. He touched a hand to his face and ran the other through his long, black hair. Mitsuha's warmth, her heart, her blood and her bone were all here.

Mitsuha was alive.

Taki stopped. There was a weight around his neck, a weight that over the past two days had become as comfortable and familiar to him as a childhood friend.

Taki looked down. There, hanging from a length of braided red cord, the double-headed figure of Mitsuha's Rosarius gleamed in the dusky light. The Soul's Armor had returned to the soul that it belonged to. It was a miracle upon a miracle.

Taki got to his feet, a stream of mumbled words spilling from his lips. Praises and thanks to the Divine Emperor were mixed with promises to Him, and Mitsuha, and Sayaka, and Tessie. And Miki too. She was also in danger, and saving Mitsuha here would save her as well, even if she would never know the reason.

Taki glanced at Mitsuha's chrono. It was Sanguinala, the first day of the Feast, and still early. He had one day. One day before the cataclysm arrived.

Taki took in a deep, slow breath. Blackmail was one thing - the upper spires were practically rife with it - but he'd never done something like this before.

Taki closed his eyes and repeated the abbess's words in his head, those very same words that had gotten him here in the first place. He opened them, and noticed Mitsuha had left her journal out on top of her dresser. He grabbed her pen and wrote a new entry, spilling those exact words onto paper. His fraying nerves began to calm and he stared at what he had written for a moment, then closed the journal with its pen tucked into its current page and took it from its place.

Taki got dressed and put Mitsuha's Ministorum robes, running a hand over the three purity seals that were affixed to its collar and sliding the diary into an inner fold. On the way out, he passed Mitsuha's plasma gun, which she had carefully laid out on a piece of thick cloth with its spare fuel flasks around it. He didn't even give it a second look. No way was he going to carry that heavy thing around all day. He had better things to do, like saving everyone's lives.

Taki practically ran to the mess hall, where he got his food and sat down with Sayaka and Tessie. He took a big bite of his jerky, stuffed a handful of biscuits in after it, then tore into a loaf of bread and washed it all down with a big gulp of protein-porridge. He shoveled his meal down, filling himself like a hungry animal, fueling himself in anticipation of things to come. Only one day until impact.

"I guess we know someone isn't planning on being late to the festival." Tessie said around a mouthful of food.

"Wait, Mitsuha! Where's your badge? And your book?" Sayaka pointed at Taki with a finger. "Don't you remember? Today's Sanguinala, so you have to-"

Oh right, those things. In fact, Taki had received that badge for Mitsuha if he was recalling correctly. Well whatever. There were problems to deal with now, and problems to deal with never.

"Forget about the badge and the book!" Taki gulped down his last bite and stood up, stepping back to address both of them at once. "Those things don't matter!"

Instantly the commotion of the mess hall died down, and a hundred pairs of eyes poured their gazes down upon Taki.

"M-Mitsuha! What are you saying?" Sayaka said, her face reddening and her mouth agape. Sitting at her side, Tessie had dropped his spoon in surprise, not even bothering to try to fend off the looks.

"It doesn't matter." Taki repeated, pushing through the resistance. "There will be another festival next year, and the year after that. But a space hulk will come from the warp tomorrow, and it's going to bring with it a whole horde of Orks. And when it falls, it will break apart, and a big fragment is going to land on the Paderu Wall."

"So if we don't do something now, we're all going to die tomorrow!" He slammed his hands down against the table and leaned forward for emphasis.

"Whoa, you serious? This is big trouble!" Tessie said, staring into Taki's face and nodding along. Taki grinned. Good old dependable Tessie.

"Wait, Mitsuha, are you sure about this?" Sayaka continued to stare through narrowed eyes. "Did you see this in a vision or something?"

A vision? Yeah, that would fit. And calling it a vision from the Emperor wouldn't be a complete fabrication. The Rosarius around his neck was all the proof he needed to believe in the Emperor's involvement in all of this.

"It was a vision. It must have come from the Emperor." Taki fixed her with a slow nod. "I saw it all, and I want you guys to help me save everyone."

There was a long pause before another man chimed in from behind.

"Won't be up to just you three." He said.

"I believe the priest." He glanced around at the other men from his squad. "What say you all?"

"If her eminence says she got a vision from the Emperor, you won't hear me saying otherwise."

"We know you wouldn't lie to us about something like this, not after putting your neck out for us to get us all this." A third man indicated toward his meal. "Tell us what we have to do, your grace."

"Wait a minute!" Tessie roared and stood up, interrupting the chain of agreement.

"How do you know about this?" He jabbed a finger at the last man who had spoken. "Who'd you hear it from? And how many more of you have been snooping around instead of minding your own business?"

The entire breakfast crowd seemed to share a look, which told Taki everything he needed to know. So too, did the expression that Sayaka was wearing as she seemed to shrink into her seat.

"So it was you." Tessie noticed at the same time and rounded on her. "Of all the people in our little company, I never thought it would be you who would spill on us."

"I only told Yokoi and Nakamura." Sayaka looked like she wanted to disappear. "B-but I promise I told them not to tell anybody else!"

"Cut the ordinator a break, would you gunnery sarge?" One man cut in. "I'm not sure if you can even pull rank on her to put her on your 'corrective duty', and we're going to need her help if we're going to get everything out in time."

"What happens in the company stays in the company." Another added. "There isn't anyone here who will give up your name even if a throne-damned Inquisitor was asking."

"Yeah come on Tessie, let's move on from this." Taki said, giving him a slap on the back that caused him to flinch. In the initial bewilderment of the switches, he had latched on to Tessie and Sayaka when they had tried to be friendly with him. It was more than that now, and more than just them. These were people that he could trust and rely on.

Taki pulled out Mitsuha's journal and scribbled down a new entry. Maybe, when the war with the Orks was over, he'd find some time to come visit and meet the company in person.

"Alright fine, I'll believe it." Sayaka said at last. She composed her expression, her tone folding into one of calm professionalism.

"So how big of an impact are we expecting from this? That'll determine what the evacuation plan should be."

Taki relayed the details of what he had seen when he'd come down; the gaping hole torn into the outer wall, the crater, and the green tide pouring in through the breach. Tessie called for someone to bring over a map, and Taki drew out a circle indicating the size of the break and caldera. Sayaka furrowed her brows as she took it all in, and made a noise in her throat.

"The blast range is too wide." She said and shook her head. "If it's going to land on us tomorrow, we won't be able to get all our supplies far enough away in time. We'll just have to get all of our people out, and take what we can."

"We're going to have a fight on our hands right afterwards though." Tessie gritted his teeth. "Isn't there some cover that we can find that we could use to save our gear? I don't know, put it behind something that isn't so far away...?"

"The seventeenth and twenty-third companies are in the danger zone too." Sayaka added. "But I don't know how we're going to convince them to pull back."

"I've got it!" Taki interjected. Before his journey down, he had seen them on his map. The things that would save them.

"The void shield generators." He said. "They're normally only supposed to be used for weather so I don't know if they can stop the crash, but if we turn them up they should be able to block enough of the blast for us to get a better position."

He ran his finger over the generator locations, stopping at one in particular. "The master control should be here. That'll let us turn them on for this whole section."

"Yeah, that is a good find." Tessie replied. He held out a fist, and Taki returned it with a bump.

"I'll talk to some of my people and get us in." He said, nodding to himself in satisfaction. "We'll have'em flipped on the shift before impact, so nobody will interfere."

They finished their meal and Tessie departed, both to coordinate the orders and to sift through his contacts for someone who could get him into the Paderu section's master void control. Taki found himself following Sayaka, the two of them walking at a brisk pace toward the unit's armory.

"We'll have to evacuate to the twenty-fifth district." She said, running a finger along a section of the map. "The streets are widest there, and we'll be able to move more of our supplies if we can load them onto vehicles and drive. Plus, if this is going to be as bad as you say, we'll want to save our motor pool too."

"What are we doing now?" Taki said, following behind.

"Tessie's gone to give out orders for everyone to bring everything to the main storage." Sayaka said. "And I"m going to make a quick accounting of what we have so we know what we're working with when the greens come."

She looked back at Taki. "Um, Mitsuha, now that you've told us all of this, what will you do?"

Taki paused. Now that he'd given the message, what was he supposed to do?

He nodded. Even if he no longer had a big part to play, there was still something he could do. Every bit counted.

"I'll help carry the supplies." Taki said. "Can't have the messenger look like she's relaxing at a time like this right?"

The two of them broke, and Taki set to his self-appointed task. Already the news had gone out, and the company seemed to shift gears, moving in unison to prepare for evacuation. Taki worked alongside the other soldiers, carrying fuel canisters and hauling cartons of ammunition to the agreed-upon location. The sounds of clanking metal and rumbling engines echoed through the district, and soon the area around the central depot was piled high with military supplies. Sayaka and her assistants wove through the stacks of batteries and brass, tallying up their quantities and translating it to expected combat endurance.

Taki glanced at a chronometer and wiped away some of the sweat that had gathered on his forehead. Something stung, but he ignored it. It was already late in the afternoon, and they were almost done. A messenger had come back from Tessie as well, saying that he'd be back soon and that his end was also ready.

Despite the exhaustion in his limbs, Taki's head was in the clouds. He took out the journal, and wrote on a new page. Their plan could work. It _would_ work.

Now and then a couple of adepts would pass by their base, giving them odd looks but keeping their distance. The soldiers ignored them until one group approached, headed by a fat old man wearing enough jewelry to satisfy a whole party of upper spire princesses. A train of ushers and petitioners trailed behind him, anxiously waiting for a chance to speak with him.

"What in the Emperor's name is happening here?" Pontifex Cordatus hissed, bringing the ongoing work to a standstill. His supplicants drew back, eager to avoid the coming outburst.

"How dare you disgrace this most holy of days with whatever this is!" He gestured at the piled-up supplies. "Why are you not paying your respects to the Emperor and the Angel? Where is Mitsu-"

The pontifex stopped as his gaze fell on Taki, and the crate of vehicle parts that he was holding in his hand. The pontifex's eyes seemed to bulge in their sockets, and the self-reverential glow on his face was replaced by red rage.

"Wait, I can explain." Taki put the crate down. Everyone's eyes were on him, watching to see how he would handle this situation.

"Such insolence!" Cordatus rumbled, shuffling across the base to stand before Taki. "I had heard of some odd things going on down here, and now I see you sullying your hands with this unsanctioned activity."

Though Pontifex Cordatus was no taller than he was, Taki couldn't help but take a step back. This was uncharted territory. Something welled up within him, in an attempt to avoid being overwhelmed.

"If you would just let me talk. I have evidence." Taki raised his voice. "We have to evacuate right now because a space hulk will crash into-"

"Don't waste my time with such nonsense!" Cordatus screamed, spittle flying from his pale lips. The back of his pudgy hand came up, striking Taki across the cheek.

Taki's shivered as his body grew cold. His head alone grew hotter, fiery ignition overwhelming the sting of the pontifex's slap. His own hand twitched, ready to fly up and throttle the old man by one of his many chins.

"Ah…"

Taki's face went pale, and he gasped at the sudden realization of what he had been about to do. His limbs trembled, sweat poured down his face, and his breaths came out in staccato bursts. Mitsuha's life was so much more precarious than his own.

Cordatus for his part was breathing hard from the effort, and did not seem to notice the barely averted assault. He made eye contact again, his face still a nest of fury.

"No false judgements can be made during the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension." He seethed. "You will bring this madness to a halt right now, and then I will see you in my office no later than this evening."

With that he turned, returning to his gaggle of aides, the clacking of his crozier fading into the distance as they vanished beyond the base's perimeter.

"Mitsuha, I know this is important and all, but you really should know better than to argue with that old monster." Sayaka said, putting a comforting hand on Taki's shoulder.

"If he wanted to, he could make things pretty difficult for us though." She added, making a face in the direction that the pontifex had left. "Do you think you'll be able to get him to change his mind when you see him tonight?"

Taki stood in silence. So it was his fault. He didn't know how to deal with the pontifex, and now he had jeopardized their efforts.

Well there was nothing he could do about it now, other than to go and try again. He couldn't give up, not with everyone's lives on the line.

"Yeah, I'll try." Taki said.

Taki returned to Mitsuha's room. He attached her red badge to his chest, and strapped her copy of the Imperial Creed to his belt. He gathered up some water, cupped it in his hands, and washed off his face.

A dull pain ran through Taki's forehead as it touched the cold water, and he leaned in front of Mitsuha's mirror to look. There was a cut there, a thin line of clotted blood. Just a day old.

 _"Taki."_

Taki blinked and shook his head. What was that?

 _"Taki."_ The voice in his head spoke again, a little louder this time.

Taki looked back at Mitsuha's dresser, feeling strangely drawn to the left-bottom drawer in particular. He pulled it open, then paused as his eyes landed on one particular piece of clothing, folded up in the bottom bin.

 _"Taki, it's me."_

Taki took the piece out and held it up. It was a white dress with an attached yellow vest, with colored gems set around its waist that were almost certainly just stained glass. It was hand-sewn by appearances, and quite well done, save for a couple of breaks around the shoulder area.

Taki laid it down beside him. Mitsuha only had a few pieces of clothing, and he knew all of them by heart. This one was definitely new. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again as a blurry picture began to take shape within his head.

 _"Taki, don't you remember?"_

That's right. Today was Sanguinala. So yesterday had been-

Taki took out Mitsuha's journal and practically tore it open. His vision shook as memories continued to well up, memories of what had happened to Mitsuha that day, carrying with them a whirl of her emotions.

Taki's chest tightened as he flipped to Mitsuha's final entry. It was dated to the day before Sanguinala. The scar on his forehead burned and strobed with pain.

' _Going up to see Taki, probably won't have time to write anything tonight. I hope it goes well!'_

" **Look, I don't have any time for this, could you just show her out of here?"**

Taki rocked back. His whole body shook. He sank to the ground and folded up his knees and pressed his face against them, curling up as tightly as he could. Tears flowed, rolling down his cheeks and legs.

"I'm sorry." He whispered.

The cheek where he'd been slapped by the pontifex still stung a little, but a new sensation flared up when he pressed it to his knees. It was a phantom feeling, a lingering memory of a sharp cutting pain from the same spot on his own body.

His own body.

Taki dried off his eyes. He and Mitsuha were together in a way. The memories made that clear. Even though it was his soul here inside of Mitsuha, fragments of her remained. Body, memory, spirit and emotion were all connected.

Taki looked up. His eyes bored into the layers of ceramite and calcicrete, past the wall that separated this district from Zona Commercia. His body was still in Mitsuha's chapel, where he'd taken one of the Emperor's tears and made his request to come back.

If he was here, and Mitsuha was alive, then was Mitsuha up there?

Taki stood up. Mitsuha was better at being genuine with people than he was. Could Mitsuha have done it? Would Mitsuha have known what to say to get the old man to get him to give them a pass?

Taki returned to the journal, flipping it to a new page. He gripped Mitsuha's pen and wrote. A last few remaining droplets fell onto the page, staining the paper. He turned the page over, frowning slightly as it became stuck together with the previous sheet.

Oh well.

Sayaka was waiting for Taki when he came out of Mitsuha's room, giving him an anxious, expectant look. Taki nodded, then started off toward the chapel.

"Wait, Mitsuha!" She reached out a hand to make him stop. "You're going the wrong way!"

"Tell Tessie and everyone else to do everything according to plan. I'll convince the pontifex." Taki called back as he turned away. His voice - Mitsuha's voice - echoed through the narrow streets. He ran, chasing that fleeting reflection.

* * *

...

* * *

Mitsuha groaned. A dull pain ran through one half of her face, and there was something grating against the side of her other cheek. The ground beneath her was hard, and the musty scent of dust filled her nose.

She sat up, rubbing her eyes blearily, then looked around her.

She was in her chapel. The statue of the Emperor loomed over her from one wall, while on the opposite side, the cell's sole lumen bulb lay shattered on the ground. It was dusty and quiet.

Mitsuha leaned over to look outside. It was dark, darker than she'd ever seen the district. Her hand slipped and bumped into something that was laying on the ground. It was a data-slate. She stared at it, and then looked down at her body and the clothes that she was wearing. They were smudged and torn and covered in dust, but clearly woven from imported silks and expensive fibers.

The realization came to her.

"Taki?" She said out loud.

* * *

...

* * *

 _\- "No matter what the monsters say..."_


	12. Beyond the Dimension

**Chapter 12: Beyond the Dimension**

* * *

...

* * *

Mitsuha spoke a quick prayer then stood up, and noticed that there was a traveler's pack on the ground behind her. She opened it. Inside its main compartment were three sets of Taki's clothes, while a side pouch sagged under the weight of a fistful of centine coins. Probably for buying food. So that meant that Taki had traveled here expecting to stay a while? Why had he come to her chapel?

Mitsuha slung the pack over her shoulder, scooped up the data-slate, and stepped out into the empty district. A thin layer of dust covered the ground and everything on it, undisturbed save for a trail of fresh footprints that obviously belonged to Taki. Most of the lumens were dark, and many were shattered, with the few that remained lit being left dim and flickering.

Mitsuha walked past an estate. The gate was open, and its hinge squeaked when she nudged it. The front door had been smashed down, and the insides emptied. The next manse was the same, and the one after that, none of them showing any sign whatsoever to hint at the whereabouts of the culprits. It was as if they had all had been abandoned and plundered of everything weeks ago, or more.

But that didn't make sense. Yesterday had been the second day of the Feast, even if the memory now seemed like something from so long ago.

Mitsuha stumbled as the floor suddenly shook, and a deep, booming rumble rang through the hive. A second boom followed, this one closer from the sound of it.

Mitsuha froze. She shivered, and her skin was suddenly covered in a layer of cold sweat. Tremors. Fire. A flash of searing, scalding light. Why was she remembering this?

Mitsuha pushed open one of the manse's gates. This layer was at an altitude that placed it within the clouds, but on clear days it should have been possible to see the ground below. Something was happening to the hive. She needed to see.

Mitsuha stepped gingerly through the silent house, almost expecting its occupants to show up at any moment. It was ludicrous to expect anyone to appear in an abandoned house, but she flipped the power switch to Taki's slate anyway. Maybe if she were caught, she could use it to prove her identity, and get away with her trespass if they thought she was Taki Tachibana.

No occupants appeared, and Mitsuha made her way to the far end, where a panel of thickly reinforced windows presented the space beyond. It was evening, and it was clear, and she could see bright pinpoints moving slowly across the ground below. Columns of black smoke snaked up from below, merging with the blanket of gray above.

Mitsuha's eyes went automatically toward Zona 4. Her blood went cold at the sight. She wanted to blink, but her eyes could do nothing but continue to stare at the chasm blasted into the wall, into the Paderu Wall where her unit resided. The remnants of the impactor sat within the gap, its hollow frame reaching upward like broken fingers, hinting at the mass and density that it had once possessed.

None of them had known. And if something like that had fallen on them-

Mitsuha wanted to cry out, but the sound died in her throat, and her breaths came out as shallow gasps. Her recollections of her time in Taki's body welled up, mixing with his memories into a whirl of inchoate horror. A space hulk that fell three years ago, carrying with it a greenskin invasion force. Taki, who lived three years in the future by the time they'd started switching.

Fire and crushing force, and a final killing light.

By the time they'd started switching, she and everyone else in her unit had already...

"...died?"

Mitsuha's knees buckled, and she sank to the ground. Images and faces flashed through her mind. Tessie and Sayaka, everyone she had ever spoken to or trained with or helped in her unit. They were all dead.

Was she supposed to scream, or cry, or what? How was someone supposed to react to a revelation like this?

Another tremor. This one struck even closer, and Mitsuha could see the cause now, could see the incandescent streaks left by greenskin rockets as they corkscrewed through the air and crashed into the towering superstructure with thunderous reports. The Orks were bombarding the hive.

Mitsuha's gaze was drawn to a blinking light on the data-slate, indicating a new contact. Looking down, she noticed that a new message had been left there by Taki. Her hand moved automatically to open it.

 _'Mitsuha, I came down to look for you. And, if you're seeing this, then it worked.'_

"Young master!" A voice called out from behind Mitsuha before she had time to process the meaning of that statement. She turned around to look. A man was standing in the doorway behind her, taking up the entire space with his bulky carapace plates. A hellgun was held in his hand, attached to a back-mounted power source by a bundle of snaking cables.

"Here! I've found him!" He waved with a hand, bringing three more guards running with heavy footsteps, all bedecked in identical equipment. Mitsuha looked down and averted her gaze as she recognized the two who had cast her out.

"Lord Tachibana has ordered us to take you back to the estate." The first guard said, hoisting Mitsuha to her feet. He wasn't particularly gentle with the hoisting. "Your unannounced departure has had him worried sick."

Mitsuha allowed herself to be pulled up. A spark of recognition lit within her mind. So that was what Taki was doing down here. He had come down to look for her, but had found only a dead woman. But then, what was he doing at her chapel? And what did he mean when he said that 'it had worked'?

* * *

...

* * *

Taki ran. His legs ached, his lungs burned, and his pulse drummed loudly in his ears. Passersby stopped and turned to look at the sight of a Ministorum priest in full robes and mitre running like a madwoman. Taki paid them no heed.

At last Taki had to stop, needed a moment to catch his breath before resuming the climb. He took out Mitsuha's journal. Even assuming they could meet, who knew how long they would have. He needed to make good use of his resting time.

Taki sat down against the corner of a wall, opened up a new page, and described the plan they had started to set up. He concluded with his confrontation with Pontifex Cordatus and what Mitsuha needed to do. He was so engrossed in his writing that he didn't notice that someone had stopped and was standing in front of him.

"Funny seeing you here today, Mitsuha."

Taki looked up, finding himself staring into the smiling face of Mitsuha's abbess. He dropped his pen, and it clattered to the ground.

"Oh, don't look so surprised." The older woman said, unfolding one of her arms from behind her bent back to pick up the dropped pen. "If anything, I should be surprised to see you up here on such an auspicious day."

She quirked up a graying eyebrow as she gave it back. "Don't you have some duties to attend to?"

"Well… no, I mean I-" Taki stammered, trying to search for an answer.

"Well, I suppose it's none of my business." The abbess shrugged. "But if you're curious about me, I'm taking a trip down to have look at some strange things I've been hearing happening down in Zona Militum."

She stroked her chin. "In fact, isn't your company the one that is stationed at the Paderu Wall? You wouldn't happen to have anything to do with this, would you Mitsuha?"

The Paderu Wall. The impact site.

"You shouldn't go!" Taki grabbed the old woman by the shoulders. "Tell everyone to stay out of Zona Militum. Tomorrow, there will be a-"

Taki stopped himself. He could tell her that a space hulk was going to appear from the Warp and crash into the hive, but how could he expect her to believe a story like that? He loosened his grip, closed his mouth, and waited for the old woman's response.

The abbess frowned, and brought up an arm to remove Taki's hands from her shoulders. Despite wrinkled skin stretched taut over nearly skeletal fingers, her grasp was surprisingly strong.

"You don't need to worry for my sake, I won't be there long." She said, turning and resuming her downward walk. "Just going to have a look around."

Taki watched her go. He stood up, and refocused his mind on his goal. He took off running again, his feet pounding the gray pavement. There was one person who could settle all of this. One person who he needed to see.

Mitsuha.

* * *

...

* * *

"Young master, we have to be going now." One of the guards said, bringing Mitsuha from her thoughts. He gave her pack an impatient tug.

Mitsuha nodded without much thought and followed after the guards. Her mind was a fog, a whirl of competing emotions without much connection between them.

As she turned, Mitsuha caught sight of something approaching in the corner of her eye. It streaked through the air on a tail of fire, carving a tunnel through the clouds above. It could have been beautiful, like the holos of shooting stars that she had seen in her youth, save for the dirty orange of its exhaust plume and the trail of black smog that it left behind.

The object began to descent, flying in on a corkscrewing trajectory that would hit the hive not fifty meters away. A shot of adrenaline surged through Mitsuha's veins, and her military instincts kicked in before her conscious mind had even recognized what was happening.

Mitsuha threw herself to the ground and pulled Taki's pack over her head. Her eyes darted up, and she noticed the guards staring at her in confusion.

"Down!" She cried, tearing the words from her throat with desperate strength.

She was too late, too slow alert them. The impact was a thunderclap that shook the world, throwing the guards to the ground, filling the air with dust and swirling smoke. For a moment Mitsuha's chest tightened, and she grit teeth together. She had failed to help them. She had failed to warn them in time.

An armored gauntlet grabbed Mitsuha by her pack, pulling her along through the falling debris. As she half-crawled, half-ran out into the open, she found to her relief that all of Taki's household guards had survived.

A curtain of gray filled the district as they emerged from the manse. It blew away, pulled out by the pressure difference between the hive's interior and the air outside. A group of sturdy figures moved through the pall, their hulking frames recognizable by their silhouettes alone.

The guards gave a yell of surprise as they spotted the Orks. They loosed a volley of panicked shots from their hellguns, bright lines stitched and strobing through the cloud of dust. The Orks roared, bestial, bellowing faces emerging from the streaming dust, rocket-packs belching clouds of greasy smoke. They raced for cover and raised their pistols, firing them off in staccato bursts, muzzle blasts flashing through the fading veil. A heavy round struck one of the guards, throwing the man onto his back with a sharp crack of broken ceramite.

As Mitsuha dove into cover amidst the debris and detritus, one thought in particular returned in a rush, ringing through her mind. What did Taki mean when he said that 'it had worked'?

Mitsuha looked up. She could see the growing fear on the faces of the guards as bullets whizzed past them like buzzing insects. As well-armed as they were, they were accustomed to dealing with petitioners and trespassers. Faced with the atavistic, alien terror before them, their shots were wild and uncoordinated. Soon they would break, and then they would die.

Death. Mitsuha had died three years ago from Taki's point of view, but now she was alive again in his body. So then, did that mean that Taki had somehow-

One of the greenskin trio put on a burst of speed, its back-mounted rocket sputtering and spewing a column of red flame. A lasbolt struck the alien on the shoulder, causing its thick deltoid to explode in a grisly spray of vapor and gore. Undeterred, it charged out from the smoke, ready to fling itself into close combat where the inhuman strength of its race would give it the greatest advantage.

Mitsuha rolled out from where she had taken cover, snatching the hellgun from the hands of the wounded guard. She detached its power cords, leaving it on internal power. She raised the weapon, taking a moment to fit its butt against her shoulder, and squeezed the trigger.

The pulse struck the Ork's rocket-pack in a flash of white, scorching its head with a spray of sparks and molten metal. It gave a bellow of surprise, then had no time for another as its raucous engine ruptured and consumed it in a burst of flame and flying metal. A momentary lull came over the fighting as the oily smoke billowed out to obscure the battlefield.

 _'Mitsuha, I came down to look for you. And, if you're seeing this, then it worked.'_

The meaning came to her. She wasn't here because of happenstance, but because Taki had switched with her. And if she was alive, then he must have switched with her before the space hulk's impact.

Despite everything around her, Mitsuha couldn't hold back a smile. That was why he was at her chapel. After confirming that she and Taki were switching, Mitsuha had adopted the belief that the Emperor was responsible. And He had intervened to give them one last chance.

Mitsuha noticed that the guards were staring at her. Taki was planning to save her, to save everyone. And he had entrusted his body to her in the meantime.

Mitsuha took in a deep breath, drawing out her Ecclesiastical training. The inspirational words came easily.

"Have faith. The Emperor protects, and victory will come!" Mitsuha called out to the guards.

"There are only two left. Keep up the covering fire, and pin them down." She tossed the hellgun back to the wounded trooper, then pointed at two of the others.

"You two, come with me." She ordered, noticing that they were the two who had removed her from the premises of Taki's estate. They nodded.

As the sharp cracks of gunfire erupted again behind them, Mitsuha lead the two guards back into the manse, keeping clear of loose debris piles that might collapse and reveal them. She located a flight of intact stairs, and lead her impromptu squad up, emerging onto a balcony that overlooked the Ork position.

Mitsuha indicated for one of the guards to hand her his vox-bead. He obeyed.

"Now! Send these foul beasts back into the abyss!" She cried.

The two she had left behind opened up first, firing their weapons on automatic. The Orks were forced lower, hunkering down as bright striations slashed through the air around them. Mitsuha's escorts revealed themselves a moment later, pouring fire down upon the pinned greenskins. One was split apart, pierced and blasted open by over a dozen bolts, and the other spun and collapsed into the dust not long after.

Mitsuha ordered the guards to dispose of the Orks by blasting the rocket-packs attached to their backs. As the alien bodies burned, the five of them gathered back together to check for injuries. Everyone was bruised and battered, and the man who had been shot might have fractured a bone or two underneath his armor, but they were all able to walk.

"It's dangerous, we shouldn't stay here anymore" Mitsuha said. "Let's go."

The guards nodded and filed in behind her, and Mitsuha let out her breath as the pounding rush of danger drew down. All that mattered now was making sure Taki was safe. Then, perhaps once they slept, she would go back to her own body to face whatever fate Taki had made for her and her unit.

Mitsuha stopped. There was a presence, one that set her heart racing but brought a sense of warm comfort at the same time. Rapid footsteps echoed in her ears, or perhaps they resounded within her very soul.

"Taki?" She said.

The guards looked on in confusion, but made no attempt to stop Mitsuha as she re-entered her chapel. He was there. She reached out with a hand, but her fingers closed around nothing but empty air.

Mitsuha found herself staring at the statue of the Emperor. The sculpture stared back with the same engraved expression that it had always had.

Mitsuha let her head drop. Her heart ached to meet Taki in person, but there were countless others in need of the Emperor's intervention elsewhere too. Maybe it was too much to ask for this one indulgence. Maybe it was impossible after all.

* * *

...

* * *

There it was. Mitsuha's chapel. A dim stone cell pressed between a pair of ostentatious aristocratic manses. It was Sanguinala, and the sounds of celebration filled the air, people drinking and toasting with goblets of red wine in commemoration of the Angel's heroic sacrifice.

All of that faded to a dull background commotion in Taki's ears. He could hear a voice, like a long-lost reflection that had been preserved in time. Same place, three years apart.

"Mitsuha!" He called. His voice penetrated into the shrine, and rebounded back at him. He ran into the chapel, whose sole lumen bulb hummed softly, pitching his shadow against the far wall. The statue of the Emperor loomed over it, every sculpted feature cast into stark relief.

The light flickered, and for a moment there was a second shadow there with him. And then, darkness.

Taki covered his mouth and coughed in the sudden dust. A man who he recognized as one of his household guards peeked in to check on him. Taki looked down, running his hands over his clothes and traveling pack. He was back in his own body, three years into the future.

Taki stared at the statue of the Emperor. His throat tightened.

He had left Mitsuha his instructions, as much as he could have given her. Everything was up to her now. He had already gotten a miracle, and there were countless others in need of the Emperor's intervention elsewhere too. Maybe a meeting was too much to ask for. Maybe it was impossible after all.

"Young master, we need to be going." The other man said. Taki nodded. Between the bullet holes in the walls, the debris on the ground, and burning bodies, he didn't need them to tell him what had happened here.

As Taki turned toward the chapel's entrance, something caught on the corner of his vision. A small pile of stones and ceramite chunks, sitting beside the foot of the Emperor's statue. Had that always been there?

Taki bent down, knocking a few of the stones away with his hand. A length of parchment stuck out, inked with prayers written in High Gothic. The script was faded slightly with age, and the parchment itself was tattered and frayed.

Taki swept the remainder of the pile away, revealing a badge of red sealing wax molded around one end of the parchment, stamped with the emblem of the Imperial aquila. He turned the seal over, noticing something written on the back of the parchment, the Low Gothic lettering looking rather crude compared to the intricate High Gothic script at the front.

 _'From Mitsuha.'_

"Mitsuha." Taki said, folding his fingers around the seal and holding it over his chest. "No matter where you are in the world, I will look for you. Even if you are one amongst untold billions, I will never stop searching until I find you."

Taki tightened his grip around the wax, infusing it with his warmth, pressing it against his heartbeat. He went over what he had done, played his memories over and over again to engrave them onto his mind. Most of the fine details of what he had done in Mitsuha's body tended to fade after he came back, like grains of sand slipping between his fingers. But if he could just save even a little bit more…

Taki let out a small laugh as it came to him. The memories of his time in Mitsuha's body weren't leaking away. Not this time. He could remember everything, every detail as crystal clear as something he had done himself just minutes ago.

Something of Mitsuha was still with him. They were together.

"And even though I didn't recognize you when we last met." Taki said. "When we see each other again, speak to each other again, I'm certain that we will know."

* * *

...

* * *

 _\- "No matter what the monsters say, your dreams, your hopes..."_


	13. Future and Fate

**Chapter 13: Future and Fate**

* * *

...

* * *

Mitsuha ran. She ran down the hive's winding steps, past gatherings and crowds, past makeshift shrines to Sanguinius built by the common folk from scavenged metal and homemade icons.

It didn't take a battle-savant to see that the greenskin invasion three years from now was heading into its final stages. Taki was in danger. Miki was in danger. It was time to make a difference, here in the past and going into the future.

The Rosarius hung from Mitsuha's neck, a familiar, comfortable weight. She cradled it with a hand, running her finger along its contours and the length of its braided red cord. She slid it into her robes to keep it from swinging, tucking it in right beside her journal.

The Rosarius had come back to her. It was a miracle. A miracle upon a miracle.

' _Mitsuha, your abbess told me something when I went up to your shrine. She said that only the Emperor can think about all of humankind, but that we are just regular people, and that He doesn't want you to give up everything for him. She said that nobody can live like that.'_

That was what Taki had scribbled into her journal. His written words carried with them the sound of his voice, or perhaps an imprint of his emotions as he'd poured them onto paper. Mitsuha could hear him in her ears, feel his thoughts coming to rest beside her own, vibrating within her very soul.

' _Fight for what's in front of you, find something precious to protect, and let that keep you going when the going looks bleak.'_

A wave of warmth spread through Mitsuha's body, infusing her legs with a surge of fresh strength. No more hesitation, no more questions. No more doubts.

' _Anyway Mitsuha, I got everyone to listen. We're going to come up with a plan to get everyone in the unit out in time, before the space hulk hits.'_

Mitsuha sprinted through the great gate that separated the two zones. A voice called to her from the distance.

"Mitsuha!" Tessie's close-shaven head popped up over the crowds.

"Tessie!" Mitsuha yelled back.

"Sayaka said that you had gone this way." Tessie pushed through the press of bodies that was gathered around the gate. "Where'd you go anyway?"

"Just forget about that, that isn't important right now." Mitsuha replied. It wasn't like she could explain to Tessie exactly what had happened.

"So the thing really is going to fall right?" Tessie glanced back as he lead Mitsuha through the narrow streets, angling his head upward a bit in the direction of the sky.

"It will. I saw it with my own eyes." Mitsuha nodded. The walls around them gradually changed, becoming covered in a canvas of pipes and power conduits.

Tessie gave her a puzzled look, then let out a low chuckle. "You saw it huh? Well then I guess we have no choice!"

' _Tessie has gone off to raise the wall section's shields. I don't know if it will stop the crash completely, but it should let us get all of your equipment far enough away, so that we'll be ready for what comes after.'_

The acrid stink of ozone filled Mitsuha's nose as they approached the Paderu field control station. Four spires rose over the surrounding habs, the smooth globes at their peaks crackling with violet arcs of electricity.

A thick gate barred their way, with a plate attached to it indicating that entry was forbidden. A lone guard sat on duty, half-asleep with his weapon cradled in his arms.

Mitsuha noticed that the gate had been left slightly ajar, in a manner that left its opening concealed by shadows but just wide enough for them to slip inside. The guard looked up, fixing them with a gaze from his half-lidded eyes.

"Well I'll be. It does my soul some good to see that the priest really is behind this." He said, inclining his head in Mitsuha's direction before giving Tessie a slow nod. "And that this isn't just some fool idea that you dreamt up one day."

"Now I'm not really sure what you all are up to, but if anyone asks, I didn't see nothin'." He closed his eyes.

"I'll handle this." Tessie said, looking back at Mitsuha. "It'll take us a bit of time to power up the fields. You head back to the base. Sayaka should be waiting."

Mitsuha nodded and watched as Tessie slipped inside, then turned to the guard who was on duty.

"Thank you." She said. "I promise, you won't regret this."

"No need to thank me." The man replied, looking like he was about to nod off. "Like I said, I didn't see nothin' or nobody suspicious."

Mitsuha took off through the streets, and before long, the familiar lights of the her company's base began to peek through the gaps between the habs.

' _Sayaka is organizing the evacuation of the company's equipment, and taking up a list of what you'll have when the aliens come. The plan is to load as much as we can up onto the company's vehicles, and take everything to the twenty fifth district tonight.'_

As Mitsuha approached the base's perimeter, she could see a couple of soldiers milling about the edges. They spotted her, and quickly made way. One man sprinted back in, returning a moment later with Sayaka in tow.

"There you are!" Sayaka jabbed a finger at Mitsuha. "That pontifex guy sent one of his stooges down to bother us again, and I had to cover for you by saying you were off praying at your chapel. You owe me big time!"

"I'm sorry Saya, there was just something I really needed to do." Mitsuha bowed her head and looked around. Chimeras lined the streets, and groups of soldiers ran to and fro, fueling them up and performing last minute maintenance checks.

"Well whatever." Sayaka motioned with a hand. "So, do you think you can convince that wrinkly old grox before he bites your head off?"

"I will." Mitsuha nodded firmly. "Keep preparing, and get ready to move out when I return."

"You heard the priest!" Sayaka called back. "Pick up the pace! We have to be ready to leave in an hour!"

Mitsuha smiled at the wave of cheers that rippled through the company. It was going to be okay. They could make it in time.

Mitsuha left them behind, departing the base by its western entrance and climbing back up to the upper hive. Taki's final words were still burned into her eyes as she pushed open the door to the pontifex's office.

' _Mitsuha, when you get this back, there's still a lot for you to do. Your pontifex is blocking the evacuation, and he could make a lot of trouble for you if he doesn't change his mind. I'm passing this up to you. You're the only one who can convince him.'_

' _The Emperor protects.'_

"There you are!" Pontifex Cordatus bellowed, clenching his fists on the surface of his desk. Veins bulged in his wrinkled neck, and his eyes looked ready to pop out of their sockets. His face reddened, like a buildup of pressure before a coming eruption.

"By the Golden Throne! Another moment longer and I would have passed judgement immediately and called for the enforcers! There is no corner on this world that is not within my reach, you mark me. Now, I demand that you explain yourself to me this instant!"

"As you say, your eminence." Mitsuha said, stepping forward and meeting Cordatus' look with a steely gaze of her own. The old man's eyes widened, and he drew back slightly in surprise.

"The Emperor has seen fit to send us a message, with this entire world at stake. And I am its bearer."

Mitsuha instructed the pontifex on the details of the cataclysm to come. She told of the space hulk that would emerge from the warp, of the fragment that would separate and crash into the Paderu Wall. She talked about the coming of the green tide, carried by the hulk, which would lay siege to the planet's hives. Her voice seemed to echo within the confines of the room as she spoke of the situation from three years in the future, the final assault by the Orks against the Primaris Hive which would see the planet fall into their dominion soon after. Cordatus kept silent, held in rapt attention.

Mitsuha finished, then stepped back, and awaited the old man's response.

The silence stretched on as the pontifex seemed to consider Mitsuha's words, his eyes darting back and forth. A twinge of his accustomed bluster flashed across his face, before he sighed and lowered his head.

"You can have your evacuation." He said weakly, waving Mitsuha off with a hand. "Go on. Leave me."

"There's more." Mitsuha shook her head. She took another step forward, placing her hands on Cordatus' desk.

"I need you to contact Lord Masuzoe and tell him of the situation. No units can be allowed to assault the greenskins on open ground. There are too many of them, and we'll be wasting lives for nothing."

Cordatus frowned. "And how do you expect me to do that? Masuzoe is his own man. I won't be able to convince him. He'll say that I'm not qualified to make that determination."

Pontifex Cordatus stopped as the door creaked open, and soft footsteps padded their way in. Mitsuha turned, then blinked in surprise at the sight of her bent-backed, elderly abbess.

"My my, what a thorny problem indeed. It's a good thing I happened to be passing by while you two were having this rather interesting conversation." She said, fixing the pontifex with a look. Mitsuha glanced back, and saw that the old man's eyes were wide, and his face was quivering and even paler than usual.

"Abbess!" Mitsuha started. "What are you-"

The other woman interrupted Mitsuha's question by holding up a hand for quiet. She took a deep breath, slowly closed and opened her eyes, and folded her arms behind her back.

"I have traveled far in all my years, across every Segmentum of our great Imperium. I have inquired and searched and seen much as a result, including many things that I still have no reasonable explanation for." She said with a nod.

"But alas, youth cannot last forever for us mortals, and eventually I was given leave to settle down and live out my twilight years in a quiet place like this." She smiled. "But who could have guessed that I would be blessed with such a sight here."

The old woman reached into her robe, fumbling for a moment before her fingers found what she'd been looking for, drawing out a slate-grey icon carved in the shape of a vertical column. Three horizontal bars drew across its center, cutting behind a stylized skull where a pair of rubies glittered from where they'd been set into its sockets. All other movement in the room seemed to still as she held the badge up, the glaring icon exuding an unimpeachable authority over all who looked upon it.

The air thrummed then, causing Mitsuha's scalp to tingle with building static. Tessie had done his work. The void shields were going up.

"Abbess! You-you're…!" Mitsuha said, pointing at the rosette. The realization came to her: in all the years she'd been going to that chapel, the abbess had never once disclosed her name.

"Don't be too impressed, my dear." The abbess cut Mitsuha off with a hand.

"As I told you once before." She paused and stroked her chin. "Or perhaps it wasn't actually you who was there that time. But I am retired."

"Now." She turned to address the pontifex. "How may I be of assistance?"

* * *

...

* * *

On the second day of the week-long festival that celebrated the Emperor's ascension, a star fell over the hive world of Ceadounus. It burst from the warp in a tide of non-light and anti-colors, a vast graveyard of ships, wreathed in the corposant blood of the immaterium. It stormed through the orbits, shrouded by flame, a colossal comet of fire and death.

Gravitational fluctuations rippled out from the proximity of its emergence, tearing free kilometers-long fragments, sending the rusted remains of once-proud vessels spinning from the body of the hulk. They slashed across the skies in streaks of descending fire, disturbing even the decadent nobles whose palaces rose above the world's teeming cloud layers. They flared molten red, then pink, then white, as they hammered the victim world's continental expanse.

One fragment split from the hulk, colliding with the Paderu Wall, slamming into stone and rockcrete and rattling them to their foundations. The wall collapsed, habs toppled in on themselves, and a column of pulverized material was kicked up into the clouds. The militia base behind the wall was blasted and battered, buried under millions of tons of ceramite and steel. The blast wave roared out, crashing against the hive's shields like a battering wave, the clash of energies releasing jagged bolts of vivid lightning.

The space hulk's main mass struck the parched plains between the world's towering hives. It blazed through the smoggy overcast, crashing down with a booming thunder that shook the very bones of the world.

As soon as the static cleared, the message went out from the Primaris Hive, crackling over the vox-beads of the planet's militia commanders. Do not go out. The greenskins are alive. Hunker down, and defend the walls until help arrives.

The third day of the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension was held in honor of a lowly militiaman, one Ollanius Pius, who had thrown himself between the fallen Emperor and the exultant Arch-Traitor. His saint-like image continued to adorn the banners of the Astra Militarum, and the medal commissioned in his name was the highest honor that a Guardsman could earn in service of the Imperium.

It was a day of defiance. Resolve. The will to stand up one final time, and scream against the storm.

* * *

...

* * *

On the third day of the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, the green tide arrived at the walls of the Hive Primaris. Thousands of hulking greenskins scrambled for the breach, their beady eyes glowing hot with unreasoning alien rage. They swarmed and clambered, hauling themselves over the mountain of smoldering rubble, surging up the wreckage like a living wave of knotted green flesh.

The defenders advanced into the ruins, stemming the green tide at the breach in the wall. Cannons boomed, sending rockcrete and broken bodies flying. Heavy bolters fired in sawing arcs, pouring fire into the gap. A ball of blazing plasma struck the lead Ork head-on, exploding in a blinding flash and reducing it to a charred and crumbling cinder.

"Drive them back! Don't let them take one step forward! We have to hold them here!" Mitsuha rallied her unit. They responded, unleashing a volley of lasbolts that cut into the horde. Bullets whizzed through the air, one deflecting around Mitsuha in a glint of pure white light.

Mitsuha took aim, firing another searing blast into an Ork that was racing down the rubble pile. The bolt struck it full on in the chest, sending it toppling to the ground, its torso little more than a gaping crater of burned flesh.

Another Ork darted out from behind a jagged tower of rubble, its body strapped with all manner of crude rockets and thick, disc-like bombs. Mitsuha sent another burst streaking its way. The plasma burned through its body, causing its explosives to detonate with a thunderous roar from the solar heat, shattering the spire's base and causing it to topple over onto a dozen more of the marauding aliens.

Orkish jump-troops shot upward, howls of glee mixed with shrieks of flaring propulsion from the chugging, flaming rocket-engine hybrids that were strapped to their backs. Mitsuha had only a split-second to look up as one of them descended, plummeting on a trajectory aimed right for her.

Mitsuha dove away as the impact of the falling greenskin caused her Rosarius to flare. The monster swatted at her with its arm, throwing her onto her side. Her plasma gun slipped from her hands and clattered away, and something flew out from the inside of her robe.

Mitsuha's face hit the ground, and the top of her head struck something hard. Pain spread through every limb and bone. Behind her, the Ork roared, blinded by the flash of her Rosarius. It would soon recover, while Mitsuha's vision blurred and swam in and out of blackness.

Mitsuha opened her eyes. Her notebook was lying on the ground beside her. And two pages that had been stuck together had come apart in the shock.

Something was written there.

Mitsuha reached for the journal with stiffened fingers. She strained her eyes, tried to resolve them enough to make out what had been scrawled onto the page. Her vision swam into focus, bringing Taki's final words into crystal clarity.

' _I love you.'_

Mitsuha's breath stopped. Her vision returned to a blurry mess as the tears began to flow. She tried to push herself up, but there was barely any strength left in her arms.

Mitsuha heard a roar of ignition behind her as the Ork launched itself into the air, avoiding a volley of shots from the soldiers further back. It angled back down toward her, heavy blade raised, aiming to finish her while she lay helpless on the ground.

Mitsuha's hand darted for her sabre. She rolled onto her back, covered the notebook with her body, and thrust up both arms with her sword gripped tight. The Ork's cleaver split the ground where she had been but a moment earlier, and its red eyes registered brief surprise as her blade entered its throat. The Rosarius flashed, deflecting most of the force, but Mitsuha had to grit her teeth to keep from crying out in pain as the momentum of the greenskin's descent drove it down the length of her weapon. The blade's edge cut into its spinal cord, sending a tremor shivering down its back, and the flailing of its limbs becoming listless and uncoordinated.

Mitsuha pulled herself out from beneath the twitching alien, her notebook held tightly in one hand. With her other, she took out her laspistol, and emptied it into the side of the greenskin's skull until there was nothing left but a mess of crisped and blasted tissue. Ahead within the breach, several of the buried Orks were beginning to unearth themselves, sprouting from the rubble like the fungal monstrosities that they were.

"Grenades!" Mitsuha called. She rose to her feet, holstering her laspistol and pulling her sabre from the neck of the dead Ork. Two squads moved forward, unhooking fragmentation grenades from the clips on their belts.

"And release!" She slashed her sword down. Sharp booms rang out across the battlefield, followed by a chorus of alien howls.

Mitsuha dropped into cover, folding up her legs and holding her notebook close to her chest. In the moment of repose she let out a long-suppressed shudder, mixed with a sob and a soft laugh.

"Taki." She whispered, as the sharp cracks of explosions rang through the air. "I know that we are years apart, but in a way I'm kind of glad, because now I can protect you from here in the past."

"So let the monsters come, as many of them as they may, but I will live to see you again, no matter how long it takes." She tightened her grip.

"And even though you didn't recognize me when I last met you, when we see each other again, speak to each other again..."

"Then, we will know."

* * *

...

* * *

 _\- "No matter what the monsters say, your dreams, your hopes, and all of your struggles..."_


	14. Communication

**Chapter 14: Communication**

* * *

...

* * *

"Colonel Tachibana!" A lieutenant saluted as Taki passed by. Taki returned the gesture, and continued on down the line for his regimental inspection.

Ten years ago, on the second day of the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, a star fell from the heavens over the world of Ceadounus. It had brought with it the green tide, the barbarian and the beast, a threat the likes of which the hive world had never seen before in its history.

Somehow Ceadounus had managed to hold out, until at last the astropathic pleas for help had reached the ears of the Munitorum. A hive world of eighty billion souls was too crucial a manufacturing center to be overlooked. The Imperial Guard had been deployed, arriving first as a trickle to help hold the line, gradually building up into an irresistible hammer to drive the greenskins back and purge them from the planet's surface once and for all.

It was the eve of battle, and all up and down the line, sergeants and lieutenants were giving their final motivational speeches, doing their best to instill purpose and honor into the hearts and minds of their crew. The 4th Division was preparing to deploy out to break the back of one of the last remaining greenskin holdouts, joined by the 5th and 6th Divisions to form the II Corp of the Imperial Guard Army responsible for the liberation of Ceadounus.

Taki looked down the line. The designation was by now something of a misnomer, as all of the arriving Guard units were thoroughly mixed with militia both old and newly raised. Six years of campaigning together had erased most of the initial prejudices and distinctions, and enlisted and officers alike now found themselves mingling and mixing freely, though the result was that deployment records had become a mess of tangled paper trails and overlapping transfer files. Between that, the unreliability of long-distance vox due to particulate load, and the intermittent air battles against greenskin fighters, it was nigh-on impossible to find anyone who wasn't in the officer ranks on short notice.

"Sarge, what's a buzzer squig?" A fresh-faced and rather nervous looking trooper murmured from Taki's right. Probably a new recruit from the hive.

"Pipe down! How should I know?" His sergeant snapped back, noticing Taki's glance. "Do I look like some kind of xeno lover to you?"

Further down the assembly, a lieutenant excused himself, returning moments later with a Ministorum preacher in tow.

"Preacher!" The faces of the soldiers in his platoon lit up. "Preacher Yuki!"

"I heard you were rolling out, so I came to see you." The priestess smiled back, removing her hood and opening up her tome to lend herself an air of dignity and formality. "May I give the Emperor's blessings to you all and your vehicles?"

"I think my crews would welcome it." The lieutenant replied. "Emperor knows we'll need all the help we can get."

Taki looked away and made his way back to the field command tent. In the corner of his vision, he noticed one of his fellow colonels giving him a sideways glare. Heavyset and dark-eyed with a well-trimmed beard, Colonel Kotani had borne a seething resentment for Taki's promotion up the ranks ever since he joined the militia officer corps six years ago with his father's permission. While his rate of ascent wasn't exactly unprecedented for high intensity wartime conditions, the ribbons and tin had been given out faster than ordinary regulations allowed, and Taki couldn't deny that they had come in part because of his status back home in the hive spire. Even out in the field, he could still pull on his connections to shore up the often tenuous supply situation of the Imperial forces, which had endeared him quite a bit to the generals and the Lord Marshal in charge of all theatre operations on Ceadounus.

Taki paid the other colonel no heed as he stopped at a corner, where his assistant was busy churning through a mountain of files. He paused to clear a bit of the hoarseness from his throat, something that he had developed over years of campaigning down on the planet's surface.

"Yanamoto." Taki said to her. "Any progress on those deployment records?"

"Working on it, sir." She replied. "Just waiting on the files from the 4th Division command."

Taki nodded and started to turn, but before he could exit the tent his assistant looked up spoke up again.

"If you don't mind me asking sir." She asked. "But you've been requesting these at every unit that we transfer to. Is there some reason behind this or...?"

Taki looked at her. His joining the officers had caused quite a stir within the high courts and the militia alike, and there had been many people over the years who had queried him on his reasons. But there was nothing he could say to them - or her for that matter - that would make them understand.

"Don't worry about it." He said, pushing aside the flaps of the tent to let himself out.

Just a little longer.

* * *

...

* * *

"4th Division to Regiment. Colonel Tachibana, what's your status?"

Taki grimaced and stretched his shoulders. His 'status' was that his back was killing him. The enemy's artillery strength was greater than anticipated considering that it was one of their last remaining holdouts on the planet. The regiment's advance had been stopped in its tracks when the shells began to fall, and they had been forced to dig like their lives depended on it. Because they did.

Taki patted some dirt from his hands before taking up his vox, and raised his magnoculars to his eyes. Columns of thick black smoke plumed up over the ash-plains in the distance, their shadows blurred by the perpetual twilight of Ceadounus.

"Major General, we've engaged some Ork tanks." Taki voxed. "We're trying to flank them but 6th and 7th companies have taken multiple losses from enemy's dreadnought walkers. I'll ask you one more time sir, after the latest production ramp-up, will you not be able to put some Basilisk shells down at the enemy rear? It would make a world of difference."

"That's a negative, colonel. Artillery's busy hitting their airfields." Came the general's reply. "But I think can do you one better."

He laughed, eliciting another grimace from Taki. Just what was it that was so funny?

"Every time I see this thing it reminds me that some of those cogheads back on Mars might have sense of humor after all. It takes all kinds to make an Imperium I suppose. Anyway, I had it cleared with them an hour ago. _Subtlety_ is powered up and already on her way."

"That'll do general. That'll do." Taki said. He let out a small chuckle and allowed his tense shoulders to drop. _So Much for Subtlety_ really was a victim of its own design. The Shadowsword super-heavy tank's main gun was made for dealing the killing blow to enemy Titans, or to its own peers on the opposite side of the battlefield. Its specialized role meant that most battles didn't really merit its deployment. Even this engagement probably didn't warrant it.

Oh well. It would be a good morale boost for the troops at least, and it was one of the enemy's last holdouts. Just a little longer, and the war would be over.

"Regiment to company command." Taki voxed the commanders of the sixth and seventh companies. "Hold out for a little longer, and make damn sure you don't look at the light. _So Much for Subtlety_ is joining the fray."

The responses from the commanders were brief and affirmative, followed a round of cheers from their crews.

Taki raised his magnoculars, sweeping the horizon and stopping on the massive shape of the advancing Shadowsword tank. It halted before a shallow rise, settling into a firing position, a faint glow building along its barrel as it prepared its shot.

Taki lowered his magnoculars as the glow became too bright. In turmoil of war and ever-shifting deployments, communications were irregular, but with the campaign winding down it was easier to maintain a link to his home. And just the day before, Taki had received a letter from his father. The bulk of the message was taken up with information on some of the rumors that were now circling in the upper spire. Word in the spires was that Governor Masuzoe was being investigated by the Adeptus Terra, both for his inept handling of the war against the invading greenskins, and for his general neglect of the arming and training of the PDF that had allowed the situation to deteriorate so harshly in the first place. Even with the arrival of the Astra Militarum, Ceadounus had been in such a bad shape that the conflict had stretched on for years, and each month that passed meant lost production and frozen Guard tithes that would have to be found elsewhere.

If the Governor was cut then there would have to be a replacement. And with the Imperium's persistent glorification of military service, perhaps the planetary governorship was within reach for the Tachibana house.

And maybe, that was what his father had been playing at all along when he had given his initial approval for Taki to join the militia following the arrival of the first Guard reinforcements.

Taki made a noise in his throat. The conclusion to the message had been yet another statement of opposition to Taki's constant pursuit of combat assignments in every division along the front. It was pointless. If Taki's father wanted him to stop, he could come down and stop Taki himself. His word alone carried no weight here.

Taki panned his glasses toward where the Shadowsword was aiming. A cluster of smoking wrecks lay on the dry plains, and trundling through them came a group of greenskin walkers. Barrel-shaped torsos lurched atop crudely welded piston-legs, while wicked arms waved to and fro, tipped in snapping pincers, whirring saws, and whatever else could bolted to them in a hurry.

There was a blinding flash that condense into a nova stream of light, a searing whiteness that forced Taki to squeeze his eyes shut. Even then, the after-image of the blast was burned onto his eyes.

The thunderclap arrived, and even this far away, Taki could feel the sound resonating through his bones. He opened his eyes again, and saw that the enemy machines had simply ceased to exist. Where they had stood but a moment ago, a cloud of super-heated vapor was blooming skyward, leaving behind a crater smeared with bubbling glass. Glowing pinpoints rained down around it, bits of molten metal and fused fragments that were all that were left of the enemy walkers. The greenskin crews were gone, reduced to ash and dust.

The troops at the front had seen it all happen, and a great cheer sounded from the battlefield. Taki could feel it in the air, a wave of rising spirit, a sea of unleashed humanity.

"Haha! A hell of a shot that was!" The major general voxed to Taki. "I'm sending over a Trojan to give her a refuel, but we should be wrapping this up soon then, isn't that right Tachibana?"

"Yes it was general, and that we will." Taki replied with a nod.

Inspired by the incredible demonstration of power from their own side, the troops surged forward in a wave of shot and shell. They cut into the lines of the confused Orks, and the greenskins' brute strength crumbled before the assault. None could doubt that the battle was over, and the Orks would probably be routed within the hour, with the last scattering remnants being left to the Sentinel squadrons to run down on the dusty plains.

"Colonel Tachibana! I have the files!" Taki's assistant called from behind him.

Taki's eyes widened, and his breath caught. He wheeled about, turning away from the battle. His assistant stood behind him, her face buried within a spread of sheets, and Taki had to fight back the urge to snatch the papers from her hands and devour them himself.

"There are no records of any other personnel from the 17th Paderu Wall Company being reassigned to the 4th Division, since the company was broken up after sustaining heavy losses." Yanamoto summarized the details in an annoyingly business-like tone.

Taki made an irritated noise in his throat. His magnoculars rattled in his hand. His assistant looked up, confused.

Taki quickly mumbled his appreciation, before allowing her to go. His shoulders dropped, and the rapid staccato of his heartbeat slowed. His helmet suddenly felt heavy on his head, so he undid its straps and let it hang from his hand. A dry wind blew, causing the now exposed scar on his cheek to itch. He massaged it with a finger.

Just a little bit longer.

* * *

...

* * *

Evening fell quickly over the Narashi Base where the II Corp was now headquartered. Originally only occupied by the 4th Division, the hasty arrival of the two remaining divisions of the II Corp had forced a rapid expansion, their sections sprouting like extra limbs from the sides of the original facilities.

The sky had already turned black as Taki entered the base's target range, where he snapped off a shot from his laspistol from two hundred meters distant. The ground beneath his target flashed, throwing up a spray of sparks and molten sand. Taki frowned and rolled the laspistol around in his hands, searching for some imagined defect that he could blame for his poor shooting. Of course, there were none.

"Can't hit the broad side of a Baneblade today." Taki grumbled under his breath.

"That would be just about every day, wouldn't it, colonel?" Confessor Onoda came up from behind him, chiming in after looking around to make sure no one they didn't know was listening to him make a joke at Taki's expense.

"No." Taki replied, then frowned. "Well, almost- maybe."

"In any case, I just came to inform you that I will be performing last rites for those of your 6th and 7th companies who lost their lives in the battle." The brown-robed confessor said. Taki nodded, and both of them turned at the sound of whirring motors and heavy footsteps as a squad of Sentinel walkers loped past.

"Ah, looks like the scouts are back." Onoda said, separating from Taki. "If that will be all, then a good evening to you, colonel."

Taki holstered his gun and watched as the Sentinels came to a stop in their lot, squatting down in a row to release their pilots. As the pilots disembarked and congratulated one another on their kills, Onoda approached them and was greeted with smiles in return.

"Welcome back." He said, stretching out a hand toward the pilots. "I prayed to the Emperor to see you all through the battle safely. It seems that He was listening today."

They walked away, heading off toward the area reserved for the division's enlisted men to eat.

Taki glanced down at his chronometer. The back of the greenskin force had been broken by the day's offensives, and the generals had ordered that some celebrations be held, with enlisted and officers encouraged to mingle with those from the other divisions whom they had not seen in many months. All around him, electrical lamps had been strung up to provide illumination at night, their thick cables running along rooftops and hanging from streets. Normally they were kept relatively dim at night to avoid attracting attention from Orkish raiding bands, but tonight they were bright, somewhat harsh even for eyes accustomed to the shrouded Ceadounian day.

Taki went to his barracks, taking a few moments to smarten himself up before joining his fellow officers for dinner in the mess hall. The hum of conversation filled the air as Taki filed past the serving stations, filling his plate with dried meat, flavored porridge, and a few lumps of unleavened bread. It was a damn sight better than the cooked meal-brick and salty hardtack that they'd been living on for the duration of the campaign.

Taki took a seat, and glanced down the length of his table. There were officers from all three divisions present, off-worlders and Ceadounians alike chewing and chatting with their neighbors. As he sat down, a guard stepped in to verify something with a captain from 6th, before leaving and ushering in a rather fresh-faced and nervous looking corporal who Taki didn't recognize.

"Sir, Corporal Umezu reports as ordered." He said, giving a strained salute.

"At ease, Umezu." The captain said, indicating toward an empty chair near the end of the table. "Take a seat."

Taki smiled and gave the corporal a nod to try to put him at ease. He'd worked with Captain Ichiro before during his stint with the 6th Division, back when he was of a lower rank. The man was open and honest, aggressive in battle but not too ambitious about rising in the ranks, having been a captain since before Taki had even joined but never seeking promotion. Taki still regarded him as something of a mentor, for he was never reluctant to consult with his subordinates and always eager to keep them in the loop about his decisions. They had chatted a bit about Taki's home life prior to the war, and Taki had even spilled some cursory details about his search for the remnants of the Paderu Wall Company. Probably the most he had spoken to anyone about that.

For his part, Umezu was still sweating bullets, and looked like he'd rather be out in the trenches fighting Orks than here.

"I wouldn't want to intrude on the colonel's meal, sir." He said, giving his ruffled collar a slight tug.

It took Taki a moment to realize that Umezu was referring to him. He blinked and glanced at the faces around him. He actually was the highest ranking officer present at the table.

"Let's not have any talk like that." Taki stretched out his hand. "Sit down, as the good captain said. We won't be having any of that classist stuff at this table."

The other officers vouched their agreements, though some did so more slowly and reluctantly than others. Umezu nodded and bowed stiffly, then sat down in his seat.

"Say, Tachibana, did the decorations ever come through for that battle at Tarawa?" Ichiro leaned over to speak with an officer from the 5th.

"They did, and about time too. I must have pushed for them a dozen times before somebody heard."

"I'm glad." Ichiro replied. "And I heard the 4th brought the main force down with a real flashy ending. There'll be decorations aplenty when the last of the greens are purged."

"Thinking of going into the Guard when this is all over, and the tithes go back on." He leaned back, giving Taki a nod. "Tachibana, you looking forward to going back to your old life?"

Taki had to work to keep a frown off his face, though the captain's question had been spoken without any acrimony. Or maybe the frown came from the fact that he'd be going back without having succeeded in his search.

"Don't mind at all. And the end's coming at us all the faster thanks to the heroics of the 6th, isn't it?" Taki said, tilting the conversation in a different direction. "The word around is that your men got the alien leader."

Ichiro nodded proudly. "That we did alright. It's always the biggest. Was monitoring the engagement, and saw the body myself afterwards."

"He was no charmer, I'll tell you that much." He said over a mouthful of food. "Big bastard was at least two and a half meters tall by my reckoning, thought he would never go down. Lost seventeen men on that raid, but the battle-line collapsed not long afterwards. Decorations aplenty, am I right?"

"Ah, and talking about my unit, Umezu." Ichiro's eyes lit up, and he extended a hand toward the corporal. "As for why I called you here, why don't you tell the colonel something about your platoon?"

Taki looked at Umezu and raised an eyebrow slightly. So there was a reason he was here. He scrutinized the corporal, trying to remember anything he knew, but nothing at all came to mind.

"Well, not much to say, sir." Umezu started, doing his best to maintain eye contact with Taki. "We're a new unit raised from the Hive Primaris, just joined the campaign not much more than a month ago. Had some veterans transferred in and attached to give us guidance."

"Elaborate on these veterans, Umezu." Ichiro said.

"Well, I'm told they go way back, sir." Umezu continued. He spoke a little quicker now, and his voice took on a bit of a worshipful tone.

"Word is many of them were from the first company to engage the greens, back when they attacked the hive through the break in the wall. And I wouldn't doubt it myself, seeing some of the things they were able to do. Gotten more combat assignments since then, but well, it's all over now."

Taki froze with his fork lifted halfway to his mouth. All other sound seemed to disappear from his surroundings. A fog drew up inside of his head, seeming to solidify into a long, dark tunnel. The point of light at the end was Umezu's words.

"Thank you corporal, that will be all." Ichiro said, giving Taki a slow nod. "Weren't you looking for someone within this unit, colonel?"

"Yeah." Taki said and nodded quickly. Ichiro raised an inquisitive eyebrow to invite him to say more, but when Taki said nothing he then turned away, shifting the conversation to another subject and leaving Taki to his thoughts.

Taki cleared his plate of food. While some of the other officers rose and went to get seconds, Taki let his lie empty, remaining in his seat and chatting for just long enough on other subjects to not seem impolite. When at last he judged himself to have fulfilled the bounds of propriety, he excused himself and walked out the door, taking with him a glass of thankfully salt-free water. Though he sipped at it regularly, the tepid water couldn't dispel the cotton-wool dryness that now filled his mouth.

Just a little bit longer now.

* * *

...

* * *

Taki passed through to the part of the base reserved for the 6th Division. His feet stung a little, probably developing blisters from the day's hectic action, but even so he had to keep himself back from breaking out into a run.

A spark of hope lit within Taki's chest as he spotted a familiar face passing by, one that tickled something in the very recesses of his memory. He scrutinized the other man's features, running the details over and over in his mind to confirm it to himself. The other man paused as he seemed to notice Taki's stare, and Taki quickly extended a greeting to defray any oddness.

"You there! Sergeant!" Taki called, and the two of them exchanged salutes.

"Were you perchance originally stationed with the Paderu Wall Company?" He added.

"Yes sir! Sergeant Hideo Shimada reporting, sir!"

Taki let out his breath as a sigh of relief. The spark in his chest grew to a flare. He opened his mouth to let spill his burning question, then paused.

The battle had just ended, and the injured were still being brought in to the field hospitals, and the Ministorum staff would be busy offering last rites to those who were too far gone to be saved. It would be best if Taki didn't intrude just yet.

Taki smiled. Even so, there was still someone else he wanted to see.

"Is Gunnery Sergeant Tess-" Taki cut himself off, taking a moment to wrack his brain for Tessie's proper name, "-shigawara still stationed with this unit? And who is the Munitorum Ordinate in charge of supply administration for your company?"

A look of surprise and puzzlement came over the sergeant's face as he connected the dots, which immediately told Taki all he needed to know. After all, it was quite strange for an officer from another division entirely to know that a certain gunnery sergeant and ordinate would always be found together when not on the job. Shimada's reply confirmed it.

"Could you tell me where they are right now?" Taki asked. The sergeant nodded, gesturing toward a promethium reactor tucked into a corner of the base.

"I think I saw them going that way." He said. "Would you like me to help you find them?"

"It's alright. You go about your business, and I'll talk to them myself." Taki shook his head, and with a final exchange of salutes, they parted and went their separate ways.

"This is what you came out here to do? I don't believe you!"

"Cut me a break. With all the off-worlders and officers traipsing around, this is the only time I'll have to do this."

Taki froze for a moment as his ears picked up the sound of familiar bickering, and his heart began to pound faster and faster. The flare of hope grew into a flame. They were just like he remembered.

"Tessie! Sayaka!" He blurted out without skipping a beat as he rounded the corner before them. His eyes widened. The words had just rolled off his tongue automatically, but he was still a stranger to them. He hadn't meant for it to come out like that.

"Alright, who has been spreading that damned nickname around?" Tessie rose to his feet, a long strand of Ork tusks held tightly in his hand. Behind him, still leaning against the promethium reactor, Sayaka covered her mouth to stifle a giggle.

Both of them stiffened in unison as their eyes focused on Taki, particularly the ribbons and tins adorning his uniform's chest.

"Oh! Colonel!" Tessie said. He snapped off a salute, then took a step back and glanced back at Sayaka for support.

"Yes, colonel, h-how may we help you this evening?" Sayaka stuttered. She stood up, grasping Tessie's hand that was holding the trophies and shifting it behind her.

"At ease." Taki said, returning Tessie's salute.

"And I don't care about that." He indicated toward the hand that was gripping the trinkets. "Just make sure you don't let any of the black cloaks see it and there won't be any problems."

The three of them stood for a moment in companionable silence, before Sayaka broke the spell.

"So, uh, colonel, did you come to look for us?" She said, loosening her grip on Tessie's hand. "Do you need us for something?"

Taki straightened himself and nodded. There was only one thing left to do, he supposed.

"Where's Mitsuha?" He asked.

Both Tessie and Sayaka seemed to recoil as if struck, and Taki's heart plummeted into his stomach. Tessie fixed Taki with a dark look, but his anger faded as he noticed Taki's own expression. Sayaka seemed to notice as well, and she tightened her grip around Tessie' shand.

"Well, four years ago, Mitsuha..." Sayaka started, trailing off before Tessie cut in.

"We were attacking one of the greenskins' positions in one of the other hives." Tessie said. "When one of their fliers came out of nowhere, and they hit her position with a bomb. Brought the section down."

Taki felt himself trembling. He clenched and unclenched his fist. It was behavior unbecoming of an officer, but he couldn't stop himself.

"We looked for survivors but then we had to move on. But we were on the attack, so maybe the engineering crews that were following behind could've-" Sayaka added, her lower lip quivering as she spoke.

"Anyway, we lost contact with Mitsuha then." Tessie said, sorrow and bitterness stealing across his face. "And we haven't heard from her since."

The flame of hope died all at once, replaced by a heavy fog of emotions. Taki staggered, and the quiet 'sorry' that Tessie added afterwards didn't help. Taki was the one who should have been sorry. He was the one who had promised to find her, but he hadn't made it in time.

He was so stupid.

"Did… did you know her?" Sayaka ventured.

Taki made a noise in his throat. What was he supposed to say to them? What could he say to them that would make them understand without Mitsuha here?

"Yeah." He said. That was all his mouth could produce. His limbs and eyelids suddenly felt heavy.

Taki turned. "Sorry for the trouble."

* * *

...

* * *

"Here is Confessor Onoda's report, sir."

It was late in the following day, and Taki sat stiffly in his seat, facing his superior in command of the 4th Division. He reached across the desk, sliding over a piece of paper for the major general to see, stamped with the symbol of the Adeptus Ministorum. The general took it, scanning its brief contents quickly.

"Not much in the way of details but he says you're spiritually unwell, despite this battle that we just won?" The general glanced up. Taki kept silent and wiped his sweaty palms against his uniform.

"And you're requesting discharge on this basis?"

"Yes, sir." Taki replied.

"If you're afraid of going back to peace, the Guard is always recruiting. Could use more in the business."

"No, that isn't it, sir." Taki shook his head slowly.

The general nodded and fixed Taki with an expectant look, inviting him to clarify further. Taki said nothing, and the silence stretched on between them until the general shrugged and grunted, and took out a sheaf of files.

"Well in any case, I see no reason not to grant this." He said, his pen scratching against paper as he scribbled down his signature at the bottom of each sheet. "The campaign is drawing down, you're due for some major force reductions soon, and we've already got our next deployment."

"Navy bastards are dragging their feet though." He grumbled under his breath. "While we've been slogging through the dust, instead of givin' us air support, word is one of those naval dynasty-boys even went and got himself betrothed to the daughter of some big spire house."

"Their indolence never ceases to amaze, does it major general?" Taki replied.

"No it does not." The general signed the papers and slid them over to Taki. " Anyway, you're approved. Fill out the rest yourself and give them to the ordinate."

Taki thanked the general and left, submitting the filled papers to their proper places. Special permission was granted for him to keep his issued equipment; no doubt there would be several organizations practically salivating at the chance to reap a publicity boon from this. He called up his contacts in the upper hive, and within a few hours, a private shuttle arrived to pick him up. Taki stepped onboard and strapped himself down as it took off toward his family's hangar.

"Fly us low here." Taki said as they approached the hive's perimeter. The pilot gave him a sideways look, then nodded and took the aircraft down.

Taki leaned over to look out through the shuttle's side viewport. The Paderu Wall stretched out below him, topped by a forest of huge construction machines. The rubble had been cleared, the remains of the impactor disassembled, and the damaged section had been torn down and was in the process of being rebuilt. Elsewhere across the hive, other bombed-out sections were under similar reconstruction, some of the towering cranes rising high enough to scrape the clouds.

Taki kept his gaze glued on that sight until the shuttle ascended again, and the clouds blotted out the lower hive. He shaded them when the aircraft rose above the cloud layer, and the orange glare of the setting sun reflecting off its surface became too bright for his eyes, adjusted as they were to the dusky twilight below. The shuttle landed within its hangar, lurching on its struts for a moment as the door slammed shut behind it and the room was repressurized.

Taki disembarked, and stepped into the manse that he had not seen in six years. He ran a hand over a smooth marble pillar, glanced at the gilded drapes, and stared for a moment at his lone reflection in the polished marble floor.

"Welcome home, young master!" A chorus of voices called to him.

Taki wheeled about and saw his household staff arrayed behind him, headed by the young woman who acted as staff leader.

"Thank you for your service. Would you like anything done?" She said, handing Taki's data-slate to him. His fingers closed around it, automatically rotating it to his favored typing posture.

"No thanks. I'm pretty tired, and I think I'll just go to bed." Taki said.

Taki made his way to his room. Everything had been maintained exactly as he had left it. He looked around, his gaze falling on his reflected image within his full-length mirror, staying there until a numbness in his legs brought him out of his stupor. Beside the mirror was his closet, and he stepped into it, shedding his military fatigues and removing his helmet. He opened his locked box, and removed the purity seal from the cushion that he had laid it on all those years ago. He turned it over to look at the words written on the back of its parchment.

' _From Mitsuha.'_

Taki blinked. Right. There was something he needed to do.

Still stooped down in his closet, Taki powered on his slate, and drew up a list of assets for the next world out. The Okudera Conglomerate held more sway there, having purchased large tracts of land for resource prospecting and development. Marking out a couple of undeveloped sections, Taki sent out a request for more details.

Taki let out his breath and loosened his other hand, which had been gripping the purity seal so tightly that he was afraid the wax would deform. Putting the seal back into its container, and sliding his slate into a drawer, Taki undressed and went into his bath. It was a novel sensation, one that he had not felt in years, but it could not dispel the drowsiness that clung to him like a wet cloth.

Taki rose from his bath, dried himself off, and collapsed onto his bed. He stretched his arms out across the empty expanse, and found that he could not reach the edges.

After years of sleeping on cots and bedrolls on the ground, it was too big for him.

* * *

...

* * *

"Wow, you didn't have to show looking up like that." Miki said, indicating toward Taki's uniform with a hand. She had come dressed plainly, though there was a small silver band sparkling like a droplet of water on one of her fingers.

"Why, you even brought the helmet." She stifled a laugh with her hand.

Taki shrugged. "I've got a meeting with some people from the church later, who wanted me like this. It's easier to just not change."

Though he had only been home for two days, news of Taki's return had spread fast, resulting in him waking to find himself deluged with people wanting to meet him. House associates, branch members, and contacts from the Ministorum wanting to use him for their propaganda-vids. But they could all wait. Some things just came first.

"So, why the sudden call this morning?" Taki asked. He leaned back, resting his elbows against the railing of the courtroom balcony where they used to meet.

"Well, I wanted to see the big hero of the war, returning triumphant after wiping out the greens of course." Miki replied.

"Or what, I can't call you up to say hello after we haven't seen each other in a while? You're happy to see me after such a long time, right?" She frowned, though there was an teasing undertone in both her expression and her words.

"Heh, it really has been long hasn't it?" Taki said. He took a moment to clear his throat. His voice was getting better now that he had returned to the clean air of the spire, but it would still take awhile to fully recover.

"It has." Miki nodded. "And in case you haven't been keeping up, with the pressure having gone down these last two years, our lovely hive should be back in full order soon. We've forwarded a couple of contracts for the Paderu Wall to your house, I trust you got them?"

"Yeah." Taki nodded, then frowned. "We'll tap you for the geological analysis before laying down the next section of course, but we're having some trouble sourcing the materials for the frame. There's another strike going on all the way out at Utherth, and it looks like we're going to miss the gravity event."

"Oh, that's just Tanaka planting his agents and paying them to riot." Miki said, shaking her head. "You know how he likes to do that, so that he can be called in to 'negotiate' a settlement. And take a cut on the side for himself of course."

"What a pain." Taki scratched his head.

"Well, if your days out in the trenches have dulled your edge, you don't have to worry." Miki added. "We've already gotten our ins on him, and we should have it taken care of before the intersection happens. We had already figured we'd have to do it ourselves anyway, at least until you came back."

"Say, you once tried to go down to the Paderu Wall on your own, didn't you?" Miki closed her eyes as she dug into her distant memories. "There were a lot of rumors swirling around about that, something about your guards finding you at some shrine, along with all sorts of other outlandish things that I can't make heads or tails of."

"And after that, you went into the militia for six years, and in all this time I don't think I ever got to hear it straight from you." She stretched out a hand to encourage him to explain.

Taki said nothing. There was nothing _to_ say. Not even to Miki.

"On another note, I know you must be buried under missives right now, so consider this to be your invitation to attend." Miki said at last. "I am having my betrothal ceremony in three weeks."

Taki's eyes widened.

"You are?" He started. The pieces started to come together in his head. Navy. Betrothed. Daughter of a major spire house?

His mouth slowly curled up into a smile. So that was what happened.

"I mean, congratulations. I'll definitely be there, and I hope he'll be able to make you happy." Taki said.

"Thank you." Miki returned his smile. It was genuine, unguarded, not the frozen painted-on expression that Taki knew so well. She let out a chuckle, which grew and grew into a bout of shuddering laughter. And as Taki watched, whatever had come over her spread to him, and they laughed together in the bright dawnlight.

"We picked a date that aligns well with Holy Terra, and next year when the Feast comes again, we can have our wedding." Miki said at last, once they had both calmed down. "There's a new chapel down in Zona Commercia that's been getting popular with a lot of the families up here. I think I'd like to arrange to have it take place there, and it might even do you some good to pay a visit. I'll send you the location."

Taki blinked. A new chapel in Zona Commercia? Something tugged at the back of his memory.

"Now." Miki said, noting Taki's expression. "One more thing before I go then."

Miki stalked forward, leaning over and thrusting her face into Taki's. Taki drew his head back reflexively. Back when they used to fight, he could easily deal with this sort of display, but now it was all he could do to keep from turning red.

"If you want to keep secrets about what you were doing seven years ago, that's up to you." She said, peering into his face with a soft smile on hers. "But you were searching for something then, or maybe it was someone. And I think that has to do with why you suddenly developed this interest in the militia too."

Taki opened his mouth, but drew in a breath instead of replying. At last, he conceded a nod, and Miki drew her head back.

"Alright, thanks for coming to see me today." Miki said, turning and waving back with a hand. "And I do hope that someday, that you will find find what you were looking for."

"Oh." She stopped and looked back over her shoulder. "I caught wind of a land purchase request that came to us from your house on the day you got back. That was you wasn't it?"

"It was me." Taki nodded. "What do you say?"

"Well, I'm not going to say that I'm unwilling." Miki cocked her head. "But all of those pieces that you selected have rather low development prospects, though they're easy on the eyes to be sure. What do you want them for, if I might ask?"

"It's for a promise." Taki replied.

* * *

...

* * *

Taki returned to his room and turned on his slate. Miki had sent him directions as promised, and he delved into long-ago memories as he tried to remember whether this was the shrine he had gone to. Was that old woman still maintaining it? She and her barren little cell of a shrine didn't seem like the type that would be likely to get popular with the spire nobility. But then again, she did have a strange way about her.

Oh well. Nothing to do but go and see for himself.

Taki reviewed the way to get to Zona Commercia on foot before canceling the day's meetings. Then, he slung a traveler's pack over his back, dumped in a few hundred centines for purchasing food, and started on his way out.

"Taki, are you going out?" His father asked as Taki passed him in the hall.

"Yeah, I've called off my meetings for the day. I'm going to Zona Commercia." Taki replied.

"And that land purchase, was that authorized by you as well?"

"Yes, that was me." Taki replied.

His father nodded after a pause. "Hmm, alright then."

Taki left, passing through the lower levels of Regis and Industria on the way. No curious heads turned in his direction, for it was not at all unusual to see men in military uniforms out and about during a time of war. He crossed over into Zona Commercia in the early afternoon, where finding the chapel was no trouble at all. Though it was a working day, and the people on the street were sparse, almost everyone whom Taki asked knew of its location. Apparently, the priestess there was known for her one-on-one consultations, which were highly sought after.

Locating the chapel, Taki stepped through its double doors, and had to adjust the positioning of his helmet to shade over his gloom-adjusted eyes. He frowned. Some chapel this was, it was really more of a temple in his opinion, large enough to hold thousands and rising high enough to be a miniature spire in its own right. It was a clear day, and the cloud cover was thin, allowing the windows at the top to capture the rich golden sunlight and refract it all around. Burnished friezes glimmered all around, and the marble floor was carved with intricate patterns and religious symbology.

Taki made an irritated noise in his throat. This wasn't the place he'd been looking for, but temple or not, it was rude to enter a house of worship and leave without praying or speaking with its custodian. He spotted the custodian in question after a quick look around, where she was speaking to another woman in a shaded nook on side of the chamber. From where Taki was standing at the entrance she was facing roughly his way, toward the one wall within the alcove that was hidden from his view. Though they seemed to be talking normally, the acoustics of the place muffled their words to a barely audible murmur from where Taki was standing.

So that was the priestess who had made this temple so popular, enough to have it reconstructed in such a manner? From the metallic digits of her left hand, Taki might have initially assumed her to be a member of the Martian priesthood. However, that image was belied by her white and grey hooded robes, adorned with the icon of the Adeptus Ministorum. Her hood was drawn up, and the light from above scattered down to cast her face into shadow.

The other woman stood up, and thanked the priestess before leaving. It was late in the afternoon on a working day, and no one else was here. Taki approached, and as he did, the priestess seemed to look him up and down.

"Are you a guardsman?" She asked, gesturing with a hand and inviting him to sit.

"It's alright, and no, I'm not." Taki replied, waving off the offer with his own hand. "Just militia."

"You carry yourself like one in the Guard." The priestess replied. "Is that why you joined the militia? So that you could make it in when the tithes are unfrozen?"

Taki shook his head. "No, I don't think I'll be doing that."

Taki cleared his throat as he realized that his legs were actually pretty tired. He'd walked a long way to get here after all. He removed his traveling pack and took the offered seat. It was strangely comfortable.

"Actually, I just requested discharge not long ago." He said. "And I'll not be going back."

"I think I see." The priestess nodded in what seemed to be genuine understanding. Taki raised an eyebrow, though it was covered by the lip of his helmet. Just what was it that she was seeing?

"I have friends in the militia, and I really felt like I was just starting to get to know them well when the war had begun." She said.

"We were able to keep together until, a few years ago, when I lost contact with them." She continued, and Taki found himself nodding along. "And with things being the way they are, I haven't been able to search for them. So now I just don't know, and here we are."

"Did you lose many friends to the war?" She asked.

"No, I-" Taki started, then stopped as his words caught in his throat. He closed his fingers, then loosened them, then clenched them again. Maybe it was his tiredness, or maybe it was the setting, or maybe it was the priestess's open manner that was getting to him.

But it felt so unnatural to lie to her.

"Yeah." He corrected himself. "Yeah, you could put it that way."

Taki looked up at glittering reliefs decorating the temple's ceiling. He was still having a hard time adjusting to the brightness of the upper spire, but it had gotten a little dimmer, now that the sun had begun to set below the level of the windows.

"There was someone, someone who was the reason I even joined the militia in the first place." Taki said, clearing his throat a bit and allowing his gaze to fall. "I went in there because I wanted to find her, but I never got to tell her that. And now, I won't ever be able to tell her that."

The silence that followed left Taki wondering whether maybe he had let out a bit too much. After all, the usual exhortation was that it was better to give your life for the Emperor than to live for yourself. Maybe Miki was right, and his edge really had dulled.

Then Taki looked up, noticing the barest glimmer of the priestess's eyes beneath the shadow of her hood. She looked back at him, her expression filled with tender concern.

"I know what you're thinking." The priestess replied, reading Taki's expression. "But it is not for us, the Emperor's mortal servants, to be able to give up everything for Him. No one can live like that."

"Someone once told me to fight for what's in front of you." She said. "To find something to protect."

"And let that keep you going when the future looks bleak." Taki finished for her.

"Well, it's not often that I hear that being spoken back to me." The priestess said, giving Taki a sideways glance. "Though I do hope you haven't been repeating that in front of the commissars."

"Not in front of the bad ones at least." Taki let out a small laugh. "With them it's always 'suffer not the alien to live!' and nothing else."

"Sounds like you're speaking from experience." The priestess smiled. "Have one of them in your regiment?"

"I've transferred a lot but I've seen my share." Taki said. "This past year especially, I've had to deal with one who was a real nutter for punishment. But I knew my way around him at least, and I've always been able to talk him down from a killing."

Taki looked down and pressed a palm against his chest, where his heart was pounding so hard against his ribs that it almost hurt. Why was it beating so fast? And why was he breathing so hard?

"This place is pretty popular." Taki said, looking around at his surroundings. "A friend told me to come here, and I think I can see why."

The priestess shifted awkwardly in her seat, turning away slightly.

"Well, when it was given to me, I never meant for it to become like this." She sighed. "But I was reaching for someone, and along the way, it just happened. And then the war took him, and this is what I have left."

Taki nodded, and after a stretch of comforting silence, he stood up and put on his pack. The light was beginning to dim rapidly now as sky outside faded to a bright amber hue.

"Thanks for today." He said to the priestess before turning to leave. They really did have a lot in common. Maybe he would come back again.

Taki blinked as something stung at the corner of his eye. His helmet was in the way, so he unclipped it, letting his spiky brown hair out into the air. He dabbed at his eyes, and stared at the wet tear-streaks running across the back of his hand. One droplet burned its way down his face, falling over the scar on his cheek.

What was he- why was he…?

Taki shook his head and started to walk away, his heartbeat slowing to a dull, plodding thud. His footsteps resounded loudly through the chamber, like a lonely echo dancing in an infinite silence. The sun sank behind a wall, and the lines between light and shadow began to blur together.

"Wait."

Taki stopped. His breaths heaved, and his heartbeat rose back to a rapid staccato. Something welled up within his chest, some feeling or emotion that he couldn't identify but was so achingly familiar.

"Wait, could you turn around for a moment?" The priestess said, her voice tinged with a slight shade of urgency.

Taki turned. The first thing he noticed was the wet stains on the priestess's white robes. She raised a finger to her cheek, her fingertip coming away with a droplet quivering on its end. Wiping it off, she gripped the edges of her hood with both hands, and pulled it back over her shoulders. Long black hair fell down over her neck, spilling over a braided cord the color of sunset. A lone scar cut across her forehead, smoothed over with age. As she sat there staring with her eyes wide open, Taki noticed a statue of the Emperor gazing out from one wall, the wall that had been hidden from view when viewed from the entrance.

Warmth spread through Taki's body, pulling him out from his daze. Not lost. Not lost at all. Just hadn't been found until now.

Taki opened his mouth, taking in a deep breath of the filtered spire air.

"Mitsuha." He said.

The priestess gasped, and her eyes began to glisten with a fresh spurt of unshed tears. She stood up, taking a cautious step forward.

"You know my name." She said, reaching out toward Taki with quivering hands. "So that means- Taki? You're Taki. Taki, you're really here."

"Taki!" Mitsuha called, her voice cracking. Her fingers found their way to him, tentatively at first, strength slowly entering them as they closed around his arms. One hand reached tenderly for his cheek, to the scar he had gotten when he'd gone down to look for her.

"Ah." Mitsuha pulled back, turning a slight shade of red. She took out a glove, tailored to fit over her prosthetic.

Taki took her hand and cupped them in hers before she could slip it on. Her metal augmetic was cold. He warmed it in his grip.

"You're late. You're so late. You've come back so late Taki." Mitsuha pounded lightly on his shoulder with her other hand balled into a fist. She wiped her eyes with a sleeve, then pulled her face closer.

"Sorry." Taki said. "I guess it's been so long that we almost missed each other."

Mitsuha looked up, meeting Taki's gaze with glistening eyes.

"Would you have come back?" She asked.

"Yeah, of course!" Taki nodded. "For starters, Miki's ceremony is going to be here after all, and well... you and I… I mean..."

Taki felt his palms grow sweaty as the realization came to him. He'd been talking to Mitsuha without knowing it was her. And if he came back, then that meant-

"Then it's alright." Mitsuha said, cutting off his thought. "Because if not this time, then the next, or the time after that."

Taki closed his eyes and opened them again. She understood. He pulled her closer, trying to get as physically close as he was feeling.

Of course she understood.

"Yeah, you're right." Taki said. "You know I hadn't been able to talk to anyone about what we did, not until I came to see you. So even if it didn't happen today, eventually…"

Mitsuha nodded and smiled her bright smile.

"Then we would know."

* * *

 _..._

* * *

 _\- "A monster once said: Your dreams will amount to nothing because you will not win. Your wishes have no meaning because you are not me. And your struggles will be of no avail because you are not strong enough._

 _I cannot say whether you will win, or even if you will live. But I do know this, beyond any doubt: No matter what the monsters say, your dreams, your hopes, and all of your struggles… mattered."_

* * *

 _..._

* * *

A/N: Thanks to everyone for reading because that's a wrap, and as of right now this fic is complete. I've gotten many comments both here and elsewhere expressing how odd it seems to cross Your Name with Warhammer 40k, and I can understand where this sentiment comes from. In my opinion however, Warhammer 40k's strength isn't its violence or its grimdarkness, but its diversity and the way its exaggerated nature makes it thematically evocative. In an Imperium of a million worlds, there will be a planet that can tell the story that you want, and even in the grim darkness of the far future, someone somewhere still got a happy ending.


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